SASNET Seminar with Karen Valentin, Aarhus universitet: Moral Economies of Schooling

Karen Valentin from Aarhus University is coming to Lund to present her ongoing project: https://projects.au.dk/moral-economies-of-schooling. 

The seminar is co-organized by SASNET and the School of Social Work. 

Chair: Ted Svensson.

Moral Economies of Schooling: Money, Morality and Household Financing of Education

Despite widespread ideals of free school education for all, private households fund an increasingly large share (39 %) of primary and secondary education globally. This is especially the case in low-income countries, including Nepal, where persistent underfunding of public education means that private investment continues to play an important role in access to and acquisition of formal education. 

Driven by an unwavering faith in formal education, Nepali families make huge financial sacrifices to send their children to school, often resulting in complex relationships involving loans, credit and debt. Decisions about what and whom to invest in are fraught with conflicting expectations of care, responsibility, duty and guilt, turning economic priorities into moral concerns. 

The aim of this presentation is, firstly, to share how tensions between economic strategies and moral responsibilities in decisions and practices related to household funding of education render visible across social class; secondly to reflect on Nepal as a case for exploring such tensions in the wider South Asian context.