Mar
Public Administration Theory: Hanna Sjögren (MAU) "Unruly Customers: How Parents’ (In)actions “Mess with” Civil Servants in Local School Choice Markets."
Abstract: Education in democratic societies has always had to address the tension between individual freedom and the need for public good. Based on arguments about the need for greater individual freedom, school choice was introduced in Sweden in the 1990s. Since then, Swedish municipalities have been commissioned to set up local school choice markets, whose organization varies between municipalities. The study is based on interviews with five politicians and civil servants from two average-sized municipalities with different school choice system designs and different political majorities. The aim is to analyze how representatives of Swedish municipalities conceptualize the role of parents in school choice systems. I analyze and discuss those instances in which parents fail to act as intended in the school choice system, and I relate this discussion to the wider role of educational policy in society.
Keywords: School choice; decentralization; customerification processes; public good; private good; Sweden
Bio: Hanna Sjögren is Associate Senior Lecturer at the Department of Childhood, Education, Society at Malmö University in Sweden. Her research concerns educational policy and environmental change in relation to childhood and education.
To the Public Administration Theory Research Group's webpages
About the event
Location:
Eden 366
Contact:
mats [dot] fred [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se