ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Swedish case as an example of how privatisation and commercialisation intertwine by following the flow of public funding to private actors. We do this by studying two segments of the Swedish education market: (i) education delivery and (ii) training, consultancy and support services sold to municipalities and schools. Analysis of a longitudinal dataset based on municipal invoice data enabled us to identify the main actors and to shed light on issues of ‘who buys what from whom’. The main private actors are analysed to identify who they are, their core missions, rationales and ownership. The analysis of market segments and the private actors illustrates how political reforms open up markets and invite private education companies to both deliver and profit from education and public funding in different ways. From a wider international perspective, the Swedish case offers some cautionary tales about the blurring of public-private boundaries in education, primarily in education delivery and the expansion of for-profit free schools, the ‘privatisation of knowledge’ when private consultancy actors become knowledge providers and the increasing financialisation of education.
