The research project Élites and Transnational Educational Strategies is funded by the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSFR, Humanistisk-samhällsvetenskapliga forskningsrĺdet) and runs through the period 1 July 1995-31 December 1998. It is a collaboration between the Sociology of Education and Culture research unit at Stockholm Institute of Education and the Department of Economic History at the Stockholm University. The project is also a part of the European research network Formation des élites et internationalisation de la culture (Élite Education and the Internationalization of Culture).
The general aim of the project is to examine the relations between élite groups and higher education. Important questions are
o How does Swedish élite education contribute to the recruitment and formation of the groups that will obtain prominent positions in, for example, business and culture?
o What sort of symbolic capital and investments are important for the entrance to the field of power?
One feature of the project is to combine French traditions of social science (inspired by the works of Pierre Bourdieu among others), with Anglo-Saxon research traditions concerning globalization (including, for example, Ronald Robertson, Mike Featherstone, Saskia Sassen, Arjun Appadurai).
Among ongoing and planned studies:
o On a national level, a statistical examination of all Swedish students who studied abroad 1995/96, with regard to their choice of country, university and field of study, set in relation to their age, sex and social background. The population of students studying abroad will be compared with the whole population of students studying in Sweden 1995/96.
o On an institutional level, to map the field of higher élite institutions in the Stockholm area according to their investments in internationalization (exchange programs and research networks, courses in foreign languages, rates of exchange students and researchers etc.).
o On an individual level, to investigate Swedish students who study abroad and through interviews and surveys obtain information about, for example, their motives for studies abroad, their former and further educational and professional trajectory, and their experiences of the sojourn abroad. Two separate studies are foreseen, on Swedish students in the New York area and in Paris.
Project manager: Donald Broady
Co-ordinator: Mikael Börjesson
Mikael Palme
Ulf Jonsson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Economic History, Stockholm University
Richard Palmer, Research Assistant, Dept. of Economic History, Stockholm University
Helena Wulff, Ph.D., Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University
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Created by Donald Broady and Mikael Börjesson. Last updated 13 March 1997