MERİTOKRASİ TUZAĞININ DİNAMİKLERİ VE YAPAY ZEKÂ

Yıl 2024, Cilt: 20 Sayı: 3, 845 - 869, 30.09.2024

Mahmut Özer

https://doi.org/10.17130/ijmeb.1524229

Öz

Bu çalışmada Daniel Markovitz’in Penguin Press tarafından yayınlanan “The Meritocracy
Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours
the Elite” başlıklı kitabın meritokrasi tuzağının dinamikleri ve içerdiği iki farklı evre bağlamında
derinlemesine değerlendirmesi yapılmaktadır. Birinci evre, eğitim sisteminin ve işgücü piyasasının
herkese açıldığı bir döneme karşılık gelmektedir. Bu evrede beşeri sermayeye eğitim üzerinden eşit bir
şekilde yatırım yapılabilmektedir. Ancak, 1970’li yıllardan itibaren teknolojik dönüşümlerin otomasyonu
yaygınlaştırması, orta sınıfın bu avantajını ortadan kaldırmış, orta ve düşük becerili çalışanları işgücü
piyasasından ya uzaklaştırmış ya da daha düşük ücretlere mahkûm etmiştir. Orta sınıf otomasyonla
yerlerinde edilirken elit sınıf otomasyonun ortaya çıkardığı üst becerili ve dolayısıyla yüksek getirili işlerin sahibi olmaya başlamıştır. Bu dönüşümde eğitim sistemleri tekrar elitist yapısını ortaya çıkartarak
sadece varlıklı ailelerin güç yetirebildiği, işgücü piyasasında elit işlerle güçlü bağlara sahip yeni bir elit
bir eğitim seçeneği oluşturmuştur. Çalışmada ayrıca, yapay zekâ teknolojilerinin bu dinamikleri üçüncü
bir evreye taşıma potansiyeli tartışılmaktadır. Yapay zekâ teknolojilerinin yaygınlaşması, meritokratik
sistemi ikinci evreye geçiren dinamiklerin aynısına sahip olup otomasyonu çok daha güçlendirmektedir.
Bu nedenle bu çalışmada, yapay zekâ teknolojilerini sadece otomasyonu güçlendirme yerine istihdamı
merkeze alan ve işyerlerinde özellikle orta ve düşük becerili çalışanların becerilerini iyileştirerek insanı
tamamlayan ve toplam verimliliği yükselten bir yolda nasıl kullanılabileceği tartışılmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Meritokrasi, Eşitlik, Yapay zekâ, Eğitim, İşgücü piyasası

DYNAMICS OF THE MERITOCRACY TRAP AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Öz

In this study, Daniel Markovitz’s book titled “The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational
Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite,” published by Penguin
Press, is thoroughly evaluated in the context of the dynamics of the meritocracy trap and the two
distinct phases it contains. The first phase corresponds to a period when the education system and the
labor market were open to everyone. During this phase, human capital could be equally invested in
through education. However, from the 1970s onwards, the spread of automation due to technological
transformations eliminated this advantage for the middle class, either displacing middle and low-skilled
workers from the labor market or condemning them to lower wages. While the middle class was replaced
by automation, the elite class began to own the high-skilled and consequently high-yielding jobs created
by automation. In this transformation, the education systems once again revealed their elitist structure,
creating a new elite educational option that was only accessible to wealthy families, strongly linked to
elite jobs in the labor market. The study also discusses the potential of artificial intelligence technologies
to move these dynamics into a third phase. The proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies has
dynamics similar to those that moved the meritocratic system into the second phase, greatly strengthening
automation. Therefore, this study discusses how artificial intelligence technologies can be used not merely
to strengthen automation but to focus on employment and enhance the skills of particularly middle and
low-skilled workers in workplaces, complementing human labor and increasing overall productivity.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Meritocracy, Equality, Artificial intelligence, Education, Labor market

Kaynakça

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