De waardij van eene vroege opleiding : een onderzoek naar de implicaties van het alfabetisme op het leven van inwoners van Eindhoven en omliggende gemeenten, 1800 - 1920

In this study, research has been done into the way literates and illiterates were able to cope with the modernisation process that took place in the Netherlands during the second half of the nineteenth century. Assuming that people who had learned to read and write were better equipped to face modernisation and more eager to go along with it, the question was raised whether literates would show more signs of modern behaviour than illiterates. Research was concentrated in a region around Eindhoven, situated in the southeastern part of the Netherlands. This region was selected because, at that time, Eindhoven started to change from a small a small market town into a industrial city, while the number of illiterates still was considerably large. The analyses showed that although literates and illiterates experienced a same amount of social mobility , illiterates were forced much more to look for another profession, whereas literates moved more freely. It also became apparent that literates were more willing to migrate long distance in order to find a new job. Finally, literates showed more signs of modern demographic behaviour than illiterates. Therefore, it could be concluded that literacy really was a vehicle towards modern behaviour in a modernising society.