Education and Social Cohesion: Re-Centring the Debate Draft for Peabody Journal of Education and Development

Social Capital theory has tended to treat social cohesion as a mere aggregation of individual and community level characteristics, ignoring the long tradition of theory on social solidarity and social cohesion at the societal level. However, the key indicators of social capital – associational membership and social trust – do not co-vary cross nationally and societies rich in community level social capital are not always cohesive societies. Social capital and societal cohesion are not necessarily the same thing and education may have different effects on each. This article seeks to put the analysis of education and societal cohesion back in the centre of the picture. We do this firstly through a critical review of some of the existing literature on education and social capital which points to the limitations of individual level analysis of what are fundamentally societal issues. Secondly, we outline some alternative models for understanding how education impacts on social cohesion in different societies, drawing on an analysis of some of the aggregated cross-national data on skills, income distribution and various indicators of social cohesion. The argument suggests some causal mechanisms for the social impacts of education that are quite different from those which normally underpin arguments about human and social capital. Education is a powerful generator of social capital. According to recent research on the USA, Italy and the UK (eg Emler and Frazer, 1999; Hall, 1999; Nie et al, 1996; Putman, 1995; 2000), more educated individuals tend to join more voluntary associations, show greater interest in politics and take part in more political activities. They are also more likely to express trust in others (social trust) and in institutions (institutional trust), and are more inclined to ‘civic cooperation’ or at least to profess that they do not condone ‘uncivil’ behaviour. Education is clearly not the only factor that predisposes people towards joining, engaging and trusting, but it is a powerful predictor, at the individual level, even when controlling for other variables such as wealth, income, age and gender. To Robert Putnam, current doyen of social capital theorists, ‘Human and social capital are clearly related, for education has a very powerful effect on trust and associational membership, as well as many other forms of social and political participation.’ (Putnam, 1995, p. 667). Precisely how education contributes towards civic engagement and social capital, and under what conditions, is not yet well understood. We know rather little about the mechanisms through which learning influences different kinds of individual social behaviour, the contexts