There is a current consensus within global politics over the dwindling possibilities individual Nation States have for controlling their own performances in terms of economic competition within a continually more global economy and regarding the importance of education for improving both individual and societal economic futures (Dale, 1997; Brown et al., 1997; Wolf, 2002; SOU 2000: 28). The present paper, based on ethnographic research for a Ph D thesis in 2004, discusses and illustrates some of the implications of these issues for education policy and policy development in Sweden today through a concrete case study (see also Dovemark, 2004). However, although principally local and ethnographic, the paper does not ignore the wider cultural and economic context of the increasingly globalised, capitalist, political economy, which is important for local developments in education. Indeed, and on the contrary, it is very much linked to analyses of such developments. As manufacturing has begun to disperse globally in the latter part of the 20th century, space has been created for new forms of wealth production through increased marketing and the growth of service industries, electronic communications and an e-commerce market, the so-called 'weightless economy' (Seltzer & Bentley 1999, p. 14) and new work patterns are said to develop through an increased demand for more highly educated and motivated employees who are able to use more autonomy in applying skills in combination with flexible technology and work processes. In this scenario, although qualifications are still integral to personal success, it is no longer enough for pupils to simply show that they are capable of passing public examinations (Lundahl, 2001). To thrive in our 'new' global economy - defined by the innovative application of knowledge - we must be able to do more than simply absorb and feedback information (Seltzer & Bentley, op cit.) and present school changes in Sweden are said to be very much about creating spaces for the growth of this individual responsibility and freedom of choice in the curriculum. In the senses introduced above the present paper focuses on specific aspects of the development of a new school vision in the Swedish comprehensive school. Ethnographic data from a modern school setting focussing on individuation, responsibility and freedom of choice in the curriculum form the main data corpus (Dovemark, 2004a,b; Dovemark & Beach, 2004) and the paper examines and questions the realisation processes connected to the development of new policies thus from the concrete and very material outcomes of policy development in a specific Swedish comprehensive school. This research is linked also in the analysis to other ethnographic studies carried out in similar policy contexts (i.e. the context of education change from systemic 'down to' local levels and cases). Investigations into education change in teacher education (Beach, 1995), higher professional education; including physiotherapy and occupational therapy education, nursing education, medical laboratory officer training, personnel management education and shorter engineering and technical education programmes (Beach, 1997); and the upper secondary school reform process in Sweden (Beach, 2001, 2003a,b) are considered in particular.