Ranking as a symptom

Ranking is regarded as a symptom attributed by some authors to neoliberalism. The central theme of ranking is (market) competition. Social Darwinism looms: from Mathew's 'Many are called, but few are chosen' to Spencer's 'survival of the fittest'. For an analysis of the wider societal context see Butterwegge (2004). Ranking shares the societal features of evaluation (Zarka, 2009). These kind of analyses, however, is beyond the scope of the present article.
One has to accept that 'not everybody can play in the Champions League' so to speak. But one also must acknowledge the existence of different degrees of fitness. Take e.g. cities. One can choose between two different paradigms: 'Best cities for business' or 'The sustainable city'. The latter can do without ranking (see Drewe, 2007).
Different degrees of fitness still raise a decisive question beyond neoliberalism: 'How do latecomers make it in a world where only the rich get richer?' (Barabási, 2002).