Swedish free schools have attracted international attention and in the
last decade Swedish school companies have also embarked on international
‘trade routes’. Enabled by policies of school choice and free school
legislation from the 1990s, a national education industry gradually
emerged and became institutionalised in the Swedish education policy
context. This industry is now also increasingly reaching outside Sweden.
At present, the three largest Swedish for-profit school chains are also
operating internationally across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. From
an analytical framework emphasising the fluidity, mobility and
circulation of policy and its actors, this chapter analyses the Swedish
school companies and their international operations, focusing on the
“who”, “what” and “where” as Swedish free schools engage in the global
education industry. The chapter highlights how certain notions of
“Swedishness” are remoulded and packaged in non-Swedish settings in the
processes of exporting Swedish edu-business. The chapter also
illustrates how the dynamics of the national-international blending are
manifested in somewhat different ways by the Swedish operations and
re-locates these international endeavours in relation to domestic
education policy developments.