The sense of justice in access to university: Contributions of the longue durée

The history of universities being that of the instrumentation of their access for territorial administration and social ordering purposes, the conditions of this access reflect a variable conception in time and space of what is perceived and negotiated as socially fair. The criteria for selecting students and their evolution account for this. This synthesis article, by documenting over time the permanence of some access functions and contextualizing exceptions and discontinuities in the uses of social belongings, captures the transformations in the meaning of justice and the mechanisms by which change occurs.