Literacy vs. Illiteracy. An Historical Substitution Analysis

Marchetti, C. (1984). Literacy vs. Illiteracy. An Historical Substitution Analysis. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-84-062

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Abstract

The search for stable and simple behavior of social systems led to interesting results in the area of economics, e.g. in my analysis of energy systems, cars, transportation, when physical parameters were measured, and not money indicators.

This led me to think that the primary mechanisms are to be sought in cultural patterns, i.e. in the way the individual and society manipulate information. "Action" is seen then as a transcodification of cultural imagery in much the same way an animal species is a transcodification of DNA strings.

In order to proceed in that direction I have started studying sorts of "actions" where money is not directly involved and even economic advantages at large are not an indirect cause.

The examples reported here refer to the expansion of literacy in some Western countries and Japan starting from the last century. They have been chosen in relation to completeness and credibility of the data series.

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