Swallow The Hollow? Analyzing School Choice, Marketization And The Logics Of School Fairs

Abstract

This paper aims to explore educational markets literarily – in situ – at unique “real” market places, where buyers and sellers of educational commodities meet and negotiate values and preferences. Thus, the study is conducted at three “school fairs” held in exhibition halls all over Sweden every year. At these fairs, upper secondary schools and prospective students are supposed to match, conduct and shape their future. Through ethnographical studies, analyzed in terms of social, political and fantasmatic logics, we explore the educational marketization in situ. Our results suggest that prevailing social logics based on dedication and information is intertwined by political logics of profit and branding. However, the fantasmatic logic covers the contingencies and “restore” the hegemonic social practice of school fairs.