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 thefuture 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.