Moor, Liz and Friedman, Sam 
ORCID: 0000-0003-0629-1761
(2025)
Justifying inherited wealth: a UK case study on conflicting orders of worth.
In:
The Social Acceptance of Inequality On the Logics of a More Unequal World.
Oxford University Press, pp. 185-210.
ISBN 9780197814499
Abstract
Intergenerational gifting and inheritance are increasingly understood as a key element of the reproduction of inequality over time. And yet, the centrality of gifting and inheritance—particularly for the purposes of home ownership—has grown at precisely the same time as norms of meritocracy have become more entrenched. How, then, do people reconcile belief in meritocracy with the receipt of unearned economic gifts? Drawing on interviews with first-time homeowners who had bought property with familial gifts or inheritances, this chapter explores what happens when competing moral logics of justification—the “domestic” and family-orientated on the one hand and the “civic” or meritocratic on the other—collide. While these principles appear to be in conflict, we show how people use the idea of an “intergenerational self” to construct the receipt of financial gifts as evidence of meritocracy at work. The recasting of inherited advantage as “meritocratic” makes it easier to accept the unequal outcomes that ensue.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | © 2025 Oxford University Press |
| Divisions: | Sociology |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2025 11:42 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Sep 2025 18:21 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/129357 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
