John Boli

Conclusion: Long-Term and Comparative Considerations

This chapter presents the long-term and comparative considerations of mass schooling. E. G. Geijer presented a series of three lectures in the autumn of 1844, just a few years before his death, which were revised and expanded into a work entitled On the Essential Social Conditions of Our Time . He described the origins of this principle in primitive Christianity; its penetration of parish life in the wake of the Reformation, which made every individual responsible for his or her own salvation; and its eventual expansion into the civil realm in the 18th century, leading to the rapid broadening of individualized citizenship. Geijer was an exceptionally astute observer of the profound changes that were occurring in 19th-century Sweden. By the 19th century, the corporate structure of estate society had been displaced by a new institutional framework in which the individual and the polity were the only primordial social units. The 20th-century reforms that led to the elimination of the academic schools in favor of the common schools were not departures from the path staked out in the 19th century but an extension of it.

Formation of the Rationalizing National Polity

This chapter presents the formation of the rationalizing national polity. It focuses on the construction of the individual and its dialectical counterpart, the transformation of the polity. The polity came to be conceived as authorized to manage a broadening range of activities, rationally purposeful in its management, oriented to the attainment of human rather than spiritual goals (progress, in many different guises), composed of individuals, and dependent on individual effort for collective success. The rationalizing, bureaucratic state arose in tandem with the integrated, progress-oriented, individualistic national polity. The citizens of the new rationalizing project were conceived as those who participated in this new societal project, and landholding was deemed the preeminent indicator of such participation.

Organizational Construction of the Individual: Economy, Politics, and the Military

This chapter presents organizational construction of the individual. Economic and political matters are usually considered as being more organizational and often more fundamental than the cultural aspects of individualism. The chapter discusses economic and political reconstruction. Universal economic individualism first appeared in Gustav Vasas 16th century tax reforms, which ended the practice of assessing peasants collectively, by village or district; taxes were to be assessed against individuals instead. Carlsson presents only indirect evidence regarding social mobility. The chapter also reviews the reconstruction of the military. Universal military conscription signalled the universalization of a strong and equalized conception of the individual. Every adult male was empowered to assume power over life and death to maintain the boundaries of the polity.

The Development of Swedish Mass Schooling, 1800–82

This chapter highlights the development of Swedish mass schooling in 1800–82. It discusses the formal educational system before 1800, as it was explicitly not universal in scope and involved only a small proportion of the population. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the institutional framework of Swedish society was restructured around a new model of society. In this model, society was conceived as consisting primarily of fundamentally similar (equal) individuals, while much less social reality was attributed to corporate entities—estates, towns, villages, and so on. At the same time, the theory that childhood socialization was the crucial determinant of the personal character and capacities of adults assumed the status of an unequivocal truth. These elements combined to produce mass schooling as the means by which children could be transformed into modern individuals capable of the rational calculation, self-discipline, political astuteness, and religious righteousness required to make the national polity both successful and just. Schooling was not the only initiation ceremony that arose in response to the institutional demand for a new type of citizen in the new social order.

Theories of the Emergence of Mass Schooling

This chapter discusses the theories of the emergence of mass schooling. Sociological theories attempting to explain the origins and expansion of mass schooling have proliferated in recent years. All of these theories locate the source of mass schooling in the differentiation of modern society. Some theories focus on horizontal differentiation such as the increasingly complex division of labor, the multiplication of occupational roles, and the proliferation of organized interest and status groups that developed in urban, industrial society. Other theories focus on vertical differentiation, particularly on the hierarchy of social classes that emerged as occupation and income became the central indicators of status in capitalist society. As society became increasingly complex and the division of labor intensified, two problems appeared. A new basis for societal integration was needed. A means of preparing individuals for their adult roles—in occupations, as citizens, and so on—was needed. The solution to these problems was mass schooling. Functionalism makes of mass schooling a societal response to the needs for social solidarity, cultural commonality, and occupational specialization.

The Demise of Traditional Collectivities

This chapter discusses the demise of traditional collectivities. In institutional terms, the ontological model of society shifted to the modern version in which the fundamental social relationship became that between the individual and the polity: every individual was first and foremost a Swede, only secondarily a burgher or farm laborer or smalanning. In this sense, the ideology of universal equality that would be embodied in the mass schooling system became a structural reality: all individuals found themselves in a relatively unmediated relationship to the polity and its organizational expression, the state. This homogenization process is further discussed in this chapter. While the traditional town economy necessarily was monetarized and subject to rational calculation to a much greater degree than rural agriculture, it is, thus, a mistake to believe that the rationalizing societal project emerged by a process of diffusion of urban forms into the countryside. A crucial aspect of the demise of traditional collectivities was the social deconstruction of the urban unit—city or town—and its associated guild system.

Cultural Construction of the Individual: Religion, Literacy, and Law

This chapter discusses the cultural construction of the individual. It highlights the processes involved in the emergence of the modern institutional model of society in Sweden. The chapter discusses religious reconstruction. Christianity represented a decided departure from most earlier cultural systems in that it related the individual directly to sovereign authority. The nub of the Christian concern is salvation of the individual soul and not the well-being of the clan, tribe, or society. In a critique of Johanssons (1972) literacy studies based on the household examination protocols kept by parish priests, Oden (1975) has discussed the emergence of universal peasant literacy in Sweden according to a three-phase model borrowed from UNESCOs (1957) report on world illiteracy. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the universal, enhanced individual also infused the legal system.

Citizenship and the Schooling Debate in the 19th Century

This chapter discusses citizenship and the schooling debate in 19th century. The emerging institutional structure constituted a radical, far-reaching revision of the social script that was not easily comprehended; consequently, it took time for a new model of citizenship to develop and win wide acceptance. The chapter discusses the emergence of this new model and discusses how it implied that a new form of childhood socialization— mass schooling—was socially imperative. It also reviews the schooling debate of the first half of the 19th century to show how a consensus on the necessity of state action to promote the new model of citizenship and socialization emerged by the 1840s. Citizenship is the conjunction of basic social units and the polity; in the modern institutional framework, it is the conjunction of the individual and the polity. Correspondingly, the 19th century opened with a strong grassroots schooling movement in which the state played only a very minor role. This movement was not the subject of much public concern; the schooling debate tended to overlook it, focusing instead on whether and how much the states role in schooling should expand.

Mass Schooling as the Ritual Construction of the Modern Citizen

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses mass schooling as the ritual construction of the modern citizen. The purpose of the common school is to help all of the countrys children become good, enlightened, strong individuals and citizens through a good education and good discipline. The following are four characteristics of mass schooling systems: (1) universality, (2) egalitarianism, (3) standardization of the school system, and (4) individualism. In consideration of the characteristics of mass schooling, it is important to recognize that the sovereignty of the individual has an especially universalistic character. Some individuals are not more sovereign than others; in the modern institutional model, individuals are truly equal, which implies that the multiple inequalities that persist in the social world are all illegitimate. Modern citizen is the key to the future; he or she is to create a better society, in conjunction with all other citizens of the national polity. For this task, passivity and submission are inadequate.