Trajectories of Social Innovation: Education

This chapter revisits the main theoretical arguments for freedom of education put forward in the Dutch School Struggle (1806–1920). The first phase of the struggle (1806–57) focused on the right to establish private schools and the second phase (1857–1920) on equal unconditional funding for public and private schools. The conclusion is that freedom of education has yet still not been achieved in the Netherlands due to a failure to prevent encroachment of the cultural sphere by the legal-political and economic-financial sphere. Freedom of education requires ‘sphere sovereignty’; that is, the separation of three tasks: (a) guaranteeing equitable access (rights) to education; (b) ensuring unconditional funding of education; and (c) controlling the quality of education.

Chapter in Nicholss, A. (ed.), and Ziegler, R. (ed.) (2019). Creating Economic Space for Social Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.