Abstract

The university has long been oriented toward a meritocratic ideal that emphasizes individual labor and individual measures of success. However, recent studies showing the professorate to be depressed, lonely, and extremely anxious about their future careers raise questions about the merits of such meritocracy. Drawing upon classical sociological theories of solidarity as well as recent scholarship on meritocracy in American culture this essay argues that the meritocratic ideals of contemporary academia have stripped it of the ability to produce the genuine solidarity that sustains communities.