Global “Cultural Spheres” and the Introduction of Compulsory Schooling Around the World

Abstract

This study investigates the diffusion of compulsory education in a global perspective. Compulsory education closely relates to the reproduction and change of culture and moderates the process of modernisation. We analyse the diffusion of compulsory education by focusing on the effect of a country’s membership in different "cultural spheres". Global cultural clusters of countries do not have rigid, clear-cut "fault lines". We capture the fuzzy-set nature of "cultural spheres" by using a relational approach. In the resulting network countries increasingly connect with a higher amount of cultural characteristics they share. We test the impact of cultural spheres on diffusion controlling for indicators of economic development. Exposure in terms of close cultural ties to other countries with compulsory education, significantly and substantially increases the rate of adoption.

Does National Culture Influence Global Policy Diffusion: Evidence From Gender Mainstreaming Policy Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

“…However, there is l no consistent measurement. Some scholars adopt a "twomode network of cultural spheres" (Besche-Truthe et al, 2020;Mossig et al, 2022), while others prefer Hofstede's national cultural index (Dwyer et al, 2005;He & Lee, 2020). This study redefines national culture.…”

Levels of policy drivers: Introducing and demonstrating an analytical framework for education policy spread

“…For that, a multitude of characteristics like dominant religion, language group, government ideology, and freedom of women are combined in one large matrix. The resulting network then links countries to one another by the number of shared characteristics (Besche-Truthe et al, 2021). For a last network, I utilize the geographic proximity of countries.…”