ABSTRACT
In Sweden, preschools are a central institution within the welfare state, characterised by high levels of public subsidy and regulation, with the explicit goal of ensuring equal access and comparable preschool experiences for all children. At the same time, the sector has become increasingly marketised, resulting in a diverse landscape of providers, which parents can freely choose between through the voucher system. This chapter examines how the preschool market model influences social mix within preschools, focusing on how the presence of private providers in local preschool markets shapes enrolment patterns among children from different social backgrounds. The study is based on a full-population analysis using individual-level register data on 464,379 five-year-olds enrolled between 2016 and 2020. The findings show that the presence of private providers in local preschool markets affects the dimensions of preschool segregation in distinct ways. Ultimately, the results highlight how social background intersects with market conditions when families make their preschool choices, leading to socially structured patterns of enrolment. Thus, the chapter highlights the tensions between market mechanisms and equity goals in early childhood education policy, and how these mechanisms shape the social environments that young children encounter in preschool.
