Table Of ContentNeoliberalism and Market Forces
in Education
Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education provides a wide perspective on
the dramatic transformation of education policy in Sweden that has taken place
during the last 30 years, with a specific focus on marketization. The marketization
of education in Sweden is set in the wider international context of changes in
education systems.
With contributions from researchers across a wide range of scientific disciplines,
the book provides examples of the consequences of market orientation in
education in terms of increase in inequality as well as in terms of what the market
orientation means for principals, teachers and students. It considers how Sweden
has developed one of the most marketized education systems in the world and the
possible consequences of such processes, as identified by research.
Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education will be of great interest to
educational practitioners, politicians, scholars in the field, and postgraduate and
research students in education.
Magnus Dahlstedt is Professor of Social Work at Linköping University in
Sweden. His research interests concern citizenship in times of migration, market
orientation, welfare and social policy changes, and democracy.
Andreas Fejes is Professor and Chair of Adult Education Research at Linköping
University in Sweden. His research interests concern the marketization of adult
education; migration, learning and social inclusion; citizenship education; and
bibliometric studies in education.
Routledge Research in Education Policy and Politics
The Routledge Research in Education Policy and Politics series aims to enhance
our understanding of key challenges and facilitate ongoing academic debate
within the influential and growing field of Education Policy and Politics.
Books in the series include:
Middle-Class School Choice in Urban Spaces
The Economics of Public Schooling and Globalized Education Reform
Emma E. Rowe
Education and the Production of Space
Political Pedagogy, Geography, and Urban Revolution
Derek R. Ford
Pedagogy in Poverty
Twenty Years of Curriculum Reform in South Africa
Ursula Hoadley
The PISA Effect on Global Educational Governance
Louis Volante
Academies and Free Schools in England
A History and Philosophy of the Gove Act
Adrian Hilton
Risk Society and School Educational Policy
Grant Rodwell
Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education
Lessons from Sweden
Magnus Dahlstedt and Andreas Fejes
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Education-Policy-and-Politics/book-series/RREPP
Neoliberalism and Market
Forces in Education
Lessons from Sweden
Edited by Magnus Dahlstedt
and Andreas Fejes
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Magnus Dahlstedt and Andreas
Fejes; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dahlstedt, Magnus, 1975– editor. | Fejes, Andreas, 1977– editor.
Title: Neoliberalism and market forces in education : lessons from
Sweden / edited by Magnus Dahlstedt and Andreas Fejes.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, [2019] |
Series: Routledge research in education policy and politics |
Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018048231 (print) | LCCN 2018059948
(ebook) | ISBN 9780429470530 (E-book) | ISBN
9781138600881 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Education and state—Sweden. | Privatization in
education—Sweden. | Education—Economic aspects—Sweden. |
Neoliberalism—Sweden.
Classification: LCC LC93.S85 (ebook) | LCC LC93.S85 .N46 2019
(print) | DDC 379.485—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018048231
ISBN: 978-1-138-60088-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-47053-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of contributors vii
List of figures x
List of tables xi
1 Market forces in Swedish education 1
MAGNUS DAHLSTEDT AND ANDREAS FEJES
SECTION 1
School choice, inequality and segregation 13
2 Public schools’ market strategies 15
HÅKAN FORSBERG AND MIKAEL PALME
3 Equity and choice for newly arrived migrants 33
DENNIS BEACH AND MARIANNE DOVEMARK
4 Consequences of free school choice and local responses 49
VIKTOR VESTERBERG AND MAGNUS DAHLSTEDT
SECTION 2
Market forces and changing views on education 63
5 Market reforms in Sweden and the OECD 65
ANDERS TRUMBERG
6 Representations of a school in constant crisis 78
EVA REIMERS
7 ‘Market relevance’ and the academic-vocational divide 93
MATTIAS NYLUND
vi Contents
8 Fostering entrepreneurial citizens 107
MAGNUS DAHLSTEDT AND ANDREAS FEJES
9 Neoliberalising adult education 123
MARIE CARLSON AND BENGT JACOBSSON
SECTION 3
Competition and business logic 139
10 A stimulating competition at the Swedish upper
secondary school market? 141
ANN-SOFIE HOLM AND LISBETH LUNDAHL
11 Procurement as a market in adult education 156
ANDREAS FEJES AND DIANA HOLMQVIST
12 School fairs as the market place of education 170
MARTIN HARLING
13 Swedish school companies going global 183
LINDA RÖNNBERG
SECTION 4
Competition and evaluation 197
14 School inspection and the market 199
SARA CARLBAUM
15 Trust-based evaluation in a market-oriented school system 212
JONAS VLACHOS
16 Lessons from Sweden 231
ANDREAS FEJES AND MAGNUS DAHLSTEDT
Index 235
Contributors
Dennis Beach is Professor of Education at the University of Borås, Sweden and
the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His main research interests lie within
the sociology of education and the use of ethnographic research in investigat-
ing education justice.
Sara Carlbaum is Associate Professor of political science at Umeå University in
Sweden. Her research interests concern education policy and governing by
marketization, school inspection and evaluation; migration; citizenship; juridi-
fication of education; and student rights.
Marie Carlson is Professor of Sociology, University of Gothenburg. Her research
interests are education, migration, gender/ethnicity, language and identity
issues. She has participated in interdisciplinary projects with a special focus on
adult education, migrants and citizenship.
Magnus Dahlstedt is Professor of Social Work at Linköping University in Swe-
den. His research interests concern citizenship in times of migration, market
orientation, welfare and social policy changes and democracy.
Marianne Dovemark is Professor in Education at the University of Gothenburg
in Sweden. Her main research interests concern the marketization of educa-
tion and citizenship education. Theoretically, she belongs to a critical tradi-
tion, methodological in critical ethnography.
Andreas Fejes is Professor and Chair of Adult Education Research at Linköping
University in Sweden. His research interests concern the marketization of
adult education; migration, learning and social inclusion; citizenship educa-
tion; and bibliometric studies in education.
Håkan Forsberg is a member of SEC (Sociology of Education and Culture) and
Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Education at Uppsala University. His main
research interest concerns social stratification in relation to school choice,
marketization of education and migration.
Martin Harling has a PhD in Pedagogic Practices and is currently working at the
University of Gothenburg. His primary research interest covers marketization
of education, equality and problems of inclusion/exclusion.
viii Contributors
Ann-Sofie Holm is Associate Professor in Education at Gothenburg Uni-
versity in Sweden. Her main research field is the sociology of education
with the focus on gender constructions in school, the marketization of
upper secondary education and young students’ school choices and career
learning.
Diana Holmqvist is a doctoral student in Education and Adult Learning at
Linköping University in Sweden. Her PhD research concerns the organiza-
tion of adult education through procurement and how this might influence
teacher’s work.
Bengt Jacobsson holds a PhD in social anthropology and is a former researcher
and senior lecturer at the Department of Cultural Sciences, University of
Gothenburg. His research includes welfare state anthropology, migration and
Indonesian ritual systems.
Lisbeth Lundahl is Professor at the Department of Applied Educational Sci-
ence at Umeå University, Sweden. Her research mainly concerns education
politics and governance, young people´s school-to-work transitions and career
development.
Mattias Nylund is Assistant Professor of Pedagogy at the University of Goth-
enburg in Sweden. His research interests concern vocational education,
citizenship education and marketization of education, with particular focus
on how education policy and praxis reflect and affect class and gender
relations.
Mikael Palme is a member of SEC (Sociology of Education and Culture) and
associate professor and senior lecturer in sociology of education at Uppsala
University. His research focuses on the social structure of Swedish education,
on elite education and on international educational strategies.
Eva Reimers is Professor of Educational Practice at the University of Goth-
enburg, Sweden. Her research interests concern productions and effects of
norms in education with a special focus on gender, sexuality, social class and
neoliberalism.
Linda Rönnberg is Associate Professor in Political Science and Senior Lecturer
at the Department of Applied Educational Science at Umeå University and
Senior Research Fellow at the University of Turku. She researches education
governance, politics and policy with a focus on evaluation, inspection and
marketisation/privatisation.
Anders Trumberg is a Researcher in Human Geography at Uppsala and
Örebro University in Sweden. His interests concern international, national
and local school policies with the focus on market orientation, school choice
and segregation
Contributors ix
Viktor Vesterberg is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Social and
Welfare Studies, Linköping University in Sweden. His main research interests
are learning in education and working life in relation to inclusion/exclusion
and citizenship.
Jonas Vlachos is Professor of Economics at Stockholm University in Sweden. He
is mainly doing research in labor economics and the economics of education.
His research interests include teacher supply, the impact of principals and the
role of market forces in education.
