Constructing the Un/Educated: Social Hierarchisation in the Rise of the Post-industrial Society, c. 1968–1990

Describing society in terms of the division between “the well-educated” and “the less uneducated” is commonplace today, as present in social science research as in policy and broader media debate.

The project historicises this educational divide by examining how a heterogeneous array of social scientists, policy experts, politicians, journalists, and union leaders discursive constructed the division in the intersecting discussions of the future and education in Sweden between 1968 and 1990, a period coalescent with the idea that society was transitioning to a post-industrial condition.

The principal fault line in such discussions was education levels, whereby a new upper class – the highly educated – would take over, while the less educated would form a new underclass. Here people’s social standing was perceived as determined by their personal capabilities.

I examine the formation of this division via three empirical areas: debates about educational futures, adult education, and qualification levels of the workforce.

The project develops theoretical tools to study this process through the lens of educationalisation of the social, by which I refer to how society increasingly came to be described in educational terms. A second theoretical lens is how these classifications constructed new temporalities.

In doing so, I contribute with new knowledge about this influential dividing line and its role in the creation of the post-industrial knowledge society.