The GENERAL CONTEXT of such use is:
American society stricto censu: The realization that American society has its "elite schools" and its lesser educational institutions equally devoted, like their European counterparts, to the perpetuation and legitimation of social hierarchies. Thusly, in America, no less than in Europe, credentials (see titles) contribute to ensuring the reproduction of social inequality by safeguarding the preservation of the structure of the distribution of powers through a constant re-distribution of people and titles characterized, behind the impeccable appearance of equity and meritocracy, by a systematic bias in favor of the possessors of inherited cultural capital.