The aim of this project is to analyse the value placed upon social background, education, academic performance and work experience by employers in industry and business in Sweden, Denmark and Norway between 1880 and 1920 — a period when Scandinavia, and the rest of Europe, underwent a social, industrial and economic transformation. Were specific education types, academic performances and work experiences preferred? Did economic sectors and companies value social background, schools/universities, degrees, grades and previous work experiences differently?
This research is enabled by two sets of source materials:
- graduate biographies with individual-level information about family, place of birth, education and careers of entire high school, technical school and university-level graduate cohorts
- grade lists, which detail high school and university exam results for individual students.
This material, combined with complementary historical sources, will be used to undertake previously impossible historical comparative analyses of education and practice. By providing new comparative individual-level perspectives on the young people in Scandinavia who entered high school, technical school and university-level education, the project will open the black box of how different types of knowledge and skills were valued in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It will also inform research on education more widely, as it will be the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of entire cohorts of graduates. The results will therefore be of interest to economic and business historians as well as demographers, economists and sociologists.
Work packages
- The use of Scandinavian biographies and exam grade lists. Source criticism will be used to test the reliability and research value of the historical sources, which will lay the foundation for the interpretation of the historical empirical analyses.
- Life, education and work of Scandinavian graduates. What were the graduates’ backgrounds? What did they study and where did they work? Did their education or work experience bring rewards or benefits?
- Sectors and businesses’ skill preferences. Did economic sectors, industries and companies prefer graduates with different degrees, grades, work experiences etc.?
- Businesses’ hiring processes. What did businesses/organisations consider when hiring graduates?
Funding
This project is financed through a grant from Handelsbanken’s research foundation in Sweden (Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse).
Our research
- Students of technology, captains of industry? Higher education, entrepreneurship and inventive activity in Sweden and Denmark, 1829–1929
- Breaking barriers Discovering the historical roots of gender disparities in high school performance
- Leaving their mark Using Danish student grade lists to construct a more detailed measure of historical human capital
- Not the best at filling in forms? The Danish and Norwegian graduate biographies as a source for measuring human capital
- Kristin Ranestad
- Associate Professor
- University of Oslo
- Nick Ford
- Postdoc
- University of Southern Denmark