Seminar in Empirical Microeconomics Detail en

Speaker:
Cathie Jo Martin (Boston University)

This event is part of an event series „In_equality Colloquium“.

Chair: Kattalina Berriochoa

Education for All? Literature, Culture and Education System Development in Britain and Denmark (Cambridge University Press, 2023) begins with a puzzle: Why did Denmark develop mass education for all in 1814, while Britain created a public-school system only in 1870 and primarily educated academic achievers? I use computational linguistics analyses, a close reading of texts, and historical case reconstruction to answer this question.

Fiction writers are the protagonists of this story, as their literary narratives inspired education campaigns over the long nineteenth-century. Danish writers imagined mass schools as the foundation for a great society and economic growth. Their depictions fortified the mandate to educate all the people: neglecting low-skill youth would waste societal resources and threaten the social fabric. British authors pictured mass education as harming social stability, lower-class work, and national culture. Their stories of youths who overcame structural injustices with individual determination made it easier to blame students who failed to seize educational opportunities. This book is for people who care about educating children of all abilities, are baffled by culture wars over public policy and worry about the future of collective action in our dystopian world.

Cathie Jo Martin is Professor Emerita of Political Science at Boston University and former chair of the Council for European Studies. Her latest book, Education for All? Literature Culture and Education Development in Britain and Denmark (Cambridge University Press, 2023), explores the cultural origins of diverse education systems (using computational analyses of British and Danish literature) and the impacts of these systems on the social inclusion and low-skill youth. Her previews book, The Political Construction of Business Interests: Coordination, Growth and Equality (co-authored with Duane Swank, Cambridge University Press 2012), which investigates the origins of coordinated capitalism and the circumstances under which employers endorse social policies promoting economic productivity and social solidarity, received the APSA David Greenstone book award.

Kattalina M. Berriochoa will chair this colloquium. Shr is a postdoctoral researcher on the project 'The Politics of Labor Market Inequality and Occupational Mobility' at the University of Konstanz. Her research examines public opinion, tax policies, education finance and social policy, and spatial inequality