A public lecture titled ‘Blasphemous rumours? From school to industry in post-colonial Malta’ is being delivered by Joseph Gravina at the Central Bank of Malta on Friday.
Dr Gravina is a Systems of Knowledge lecturer at the Junior College, whose research interests focus on the comparative study of industrialisation, social reproduction and education.
During the lecture, he will discuss how industrial development in post-colonial Malta required ‘workfarist’ human resource policies. Trade schools, among others, provided productivity-raising training. Projecting a specific class identity, those for girls were socially conservative.
Then, socialist policy kickstarted ‘welfarist’ comprehensive schooling. A government change in 1987 led to human resource jargon change but, according to Dr Gravina, workfarism continued (and continues) to thrive.
The one-hour lecture will be held at the Central Bank of Malta, Binja Laparelli, St James’s Counterguard, Valletta, on Friday at 3pm. Entrance to Binja Laparelli is from Triton Square or Vjal Girolamo Cassar. Entrance is free but registration is required on publicrelations@centralbankmalta.org.