Systemic hierarchy within academic disciplines: How resource capital and social capital stratify academics and form the basis of disciplinary group-based inequality

In the present work, we approach academic disciplines as social systems. We suggest group-based hierarchy exists within the social system of academic disciplines as a function of resource and social capital. We review evidence that both resources and disciplinary social capital can operate independent of societal identity to produce group-based disparities within academic disciplines. Utilizing this new means of classifying groups, we argue that these two factors position a small number of people to be advantaged (i.e., an elite) and most people to be disadvantaged (i.e., the periphery) within most disciplines. We then illustrate how our framework provides an alternative way to understand issues facing academic disciplines. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for reducing group-based inequality as a function of resources and disciplinary social capital.