Preliminary Programme

Tue 13 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Wed 14 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Thu 15 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Fri 16 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

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Tuesday 13 April 2010 16.30
N-4 ELI06 Academic elites after World War II: nationalists, democrats, technocrats
Auditorium D2, Pauli
Network: Elites and forerunners Chair: Carolina Rodríguez-López
Organizers: Marja Jalava, Jussi Välimaa Discussants: Carolina Rodríguez-López, Jussi Välimaa
Pieter Dhondt : Democratisation of university education in Belgium: wishful thinking or reality?
Like his colleagues, the rector of the university of Brussels regularly emphasised in the 1950s the importance of making university studies more accessible to other layers of the society. However, in comparison to many other European institutions, Belgian universities were characterised already by a large degree of openness, among other ... (Show more)
Like his colleagues, the rector of the university of Brussels regularly emphasised in the 1950s the importance of making university studies more accessible to other layers of the society. However, in comparison to many other European institutions, Belgian universities were characterised already by a large degree of openness, among other reasons due to the liberal tradition with regard to educational issues and due to the absence of any kind of entrance examination. To what extent, the increase of students from lower social classes threatened the balance between general education, vocational training and scientific research as the tasks of a modern university? Or did the intended democratisation failed all-together, as the current rhetoric about opening the university to migrants and underprivileged seems to suggest? Indeed, according to the students at least, one of the results of the Bologna process would be an increase of the study costs, with all its social consequences. (Show less)

Marja Jalava : Higher Education and the Question of Equality in the Post-World War II Nordic Welfare States
In the post-WW II Nordic countries, an education system that is free from the beginning of the primary school until the end of post-graduate university education has been an integral part of the welfare system. As pointed out by A. Oftedal Telhaug et al. (2006), among others, the overarching value ... (Show more)
In the post-WW II Nordic countries, an education system that is free from the beginning of the primary school until the end of post-graduate university education has been an integral part of the welfare system. As pointed out by A. Oftedal Telhaug et al. (2006), among others, the overarching value of the Nordic model has been equality, which during the “golden age of Nordic social democracy” (from the 1950s until about the 1970s) culminated in the highly optimistic idea that anybody was able to learn anything through appropriate pedagogical methods. This implied that the ultimate goal was the dissolution of the entire class system, which intimately involved the education system in the realization of wide-ranging socio-political objectives. In a sense, the education system was supposed to be a democratic society in miniature.

On reflection, however, among the historical actors, there did not seem to be any common understanding of what “equality in education” really meant. This paper will reflect on and analyse the diverse conceptions of equality in higher education policies in the Nordic welfare states after the Second World War. As a case study, it will focus on the Finnish university degree reform (1968–1980), seen in the wider context of the “progressiveness” of the era. For instance, equality as an equality of educational opportunities, equality of outcome, equality of resources, and equality of students and younger staff as equal members of the academic community will be discussed. Finally, in relation with these various historically constructed meanings of equality in higher education, the paper will reflect on the present trend, which seems to be the re-introduction of elite institutions and institutional status hierarchies into the Nordic model in education, favoring the formation and reproduction of elites. (Show less)

Per Lundin, Niklas Stenlås : The Reform Technocrats: Identifying the Nation Building Elite in Post-War Sweden
The history of contemporary Sweden has been centred round the creation of the welfare state. A strong interventionist state, a large public sector and the extent of its welfare commitment has set Sweden apart from other European countries. Those traits have also attracted interest from many foreign observers who have ... (Show more)
The history of contemporary Sweden has been centred round the creation of the welfare state. A strong interventionist state, a large public sector and the extent of its welfare commitment has set Sweden apart from other European countries. Those traits have also attracted interest from many foreign observers who have coined the notion of a Swedish or Scandinavian model.

In this paper we attempt to add a new dimension to the interpretation of the emergence of the Swedish welfare state. This is done by emphasizing the role of a new group of ‘strategists’ in the planning and build up of the strong state after World War II. The role of scientists, engineers and physical planners is generally thought of as secondary to that of political leaders and visionaries. Technicians may be important but seldom in other capacities than as executors of political directives. We do not believe that that is an accurate description.

The post-war period was an era of optimism, of a surge for public reforms and of an unprecedented state commitment. This new role of the Swedish state was eventually institutionalized during the 1960s and failed in one sector after another during the crisis of the 1970s. We attempt to explain the emergence of this state led system by pointing to the scientists, engineers, architects and urban planners that populated the state commissions as experts, led the research institutes, advised government and eventually advanced to director generals and state secretaries in the new, institutionalized scientific state. We refer to them as reform technocrats and assign them the agency behind the new state commitment. We examine their engagement, their cross-sector connections and their networks. We try to explain the window of opportunity that arose after the war by referring to the Swedish post-war myths of modernity and neutrality, of social progress and national independence that made the rise of the strong state possible. (Show less)

Kazimierz Musial : Elitist turn in higher education in the context of recent reforms in the Nordic countries
The Nordic countries have been traditionally known as welfare states where egalitarian principles constituted the ideological backbone of the social transformation in the 20th century. Within the theoretical framework of post-industrial society the paper describes the redefinition of values, work and knowledge that provide a background for the elitist turn. ... (Show more)
The Nordic countries have been traditionally known as welfare states where egalitarian principles constituted the ideological backbone of the social transformation in the 20th century. Within the theoretical framework of post-industrial society the paper describes the redefinition of values, work and knowledge that provide a background for the elitist turn. The argument is linked to the discussion about the culture of new capitalism that can be observed in the public sector reforms in general. The policies realised in the higher education sector and discourses accompanying the reforms are analysed to exemplify the change in particular.

The analysis is placed within a broader framework of the social change within which the traditional social contract is being renegotiated. The paper attempts to show how the traditional collectivist mindset of the welfare state policy logic of the past gives way to greater individualism and acceptance of elitism in the Nordic societies. Although higher education in the Nordic countries is still mainly publicly funded and managed, an increasing emulation of the public sector and market-like behaviour can be witnessed. Therefore the analysis includes a theoretical discussion of the new contractual relationship of the whole public sector, which enables to capture the changing nature of the social relations in post-industrial societies.

The empirical part covers the most recent examples of the institutionalisation of the elitist thought as demonstrated by the drive for excellence in teaching and research and establishment of institutions that are expected to provide it. The analysis is comparative in nature and includes all five Nordic countries. (Show less)



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