From the Particular to the Generic: Fostering a More Socioeconomically Diverse Professoriate

In an introductory editorial to a 2023 symposium issue of Public Administration Review, Stivers et al. recount the contents of several publications about social justice and social equity. She and her colleagues end their editorial by proposing that public administration scholars develop a normative plan leading to greater social equity and social justice for members of the disadvantaged groups they, Stivers and her coauthors, identify in their editorial. Responding to this call for reform, the present project addresses the problem of structural nepotism (inherited wealth based on Bourdieu’s three identified forms), a notable concern that Stivers and her colleagues and the nine symposium contributors fail to consider in full despite what the former say about how “canonize[d]” values limit the range of social equity and social justice questions public administration scholars confront. Employing comments and citations Stivers et al. offer throughout their editorial, the second part of this discussion offers a plan for resolving many of the harmful effects of structural nepotism on both the theory and practice of social equity and social justice in one academic discipline. The reform suggested herein is generic and thus readily adaptable to all fields of study.