Although the history of educational funding has received increased attention in recent years, the wider relationship between education and the economy continues to be rather neglected  (Caruso, 2015). In the same way, research on economic history often neglects the role of education in nurturing future economic actors (Maß, 2018). That said, when rethinking the history of capitalism, in terms of not only its doctrines or structures, but its social practices and the production and diffusion of specific kinds of economic knowledge, the role of education should definitely be reiterated.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing attempts to prevent future financial crises by “financial” or “economic literacy” (Aprea, 2016), the symposium asks about the historical roots and dynamics behind the ideas and practices concerning the establishment of market societies by educative means. Economic crises seem to be liable to claims for educational solutions, because they legitimate themselves through literate and informed citizens to make the right (financial or economic) choices. Furthermore, economic crises are often interpreted as a consequence of insufficient individual knowledge or absent attitudes, and not primarily as structural crises of the system itself. Although knowledge and liberal market societies are closely related, attempts to integrate economic issues into general education are rather new and always somewhat controversial – indeed, only limited historiographical research has been carried out (Chatel, 2015).

The symposium will bring together researchers in order to reflect and discuss the role of education as a means to solve or prevent economic risks and crises. The call for the inclusion of economic education on curricula at different levels of schooling, as well as the activities of public or private actors in promoting economic education throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, has only been reflected on the margins of the disciplines of educational science and, specifically, the history of education. The symposium will shed light on different actors, such as philanthropic organizations, teacher associations, trade unions, banking associations and private companies in different international and national contexts, such as France, Germany, Great Britain, and Switzerland. By doing so, it will highlight the contexts and conditions in which to make economic knowledge an educational issue, as well as help to historize the ongoing and renewed attempts to influence market societies’ legitimation through education.

Aprea, C. (2016). International Handbook of Financial Literacy. Singapore: Springer. Caruso, M. (2015). Why do Finance? A Comment about Entanglements and Research in the History of Education. In Berg, A., et al., The History of Educational Finance. Nordic Journal of Educational History, 2(1), 141-149. Chatel, E. (2015). Pour une histoire et une sociologie de l’enseignement de l’économie. Education et sociétés, n° 35(1), 5–21. Maß, S. (2018). Kinderstube des Kapitalismus : Monetäre Erziehung im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (Bd. 75). Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg.