The European knowledge society and the diminishing state control of education: the case of Sweden

Abstract

In this article I explore the changing relation between education and the state as this is expressed through a new language of education within Sweden, structured by terms such as the knowledge society, life‐long learning and validation. I read closely a policy document on life‐long learning, taking as my point of departure the ‘authentic state’, a state that is possible only when the desires of individuals for a good life are made the conditions of democratic society. What the reading illuminates is that what is taken for granted within the new language of education is instead an ‘agentic’ state in which the will of the individual is subordinated to the will of the state and that this is most profoundly expressed through the subject position offered the individual, what I call Homo economicus. Thus the knowledge society tends to be a society that excludes the idea of education understood in any terms other than economic ones.

Acknowledgement

This article is based on a research project ‘On validation’ financed by a governmental committee on recruitment to higher education (Rekryteringsdelegationen) and Uppsala University, 2001–2004.