Most commonly utopian thought are understood as idealized visions of possible futures and as an important premises for (hopes of) change. However, despite the fact that changes, such as those of reform, are dependent on some kind of visualization of wished worlds and outcomes, these visualizations are not by necessity presented as ideal. On the contrary, today reform initiatives seems to be more inscribed within discourses of dangers and horrors than of hopes of alternative futures – reforms that so to say are negatively motivated of what will follow if the particular and suggested adjustment to some particular circumstances would not come in place. This paper aims to analyze and give witness of how such ‘hopelessness’ has come to be part of educational policy and restructuring in e.g. the Swedish well-fare state and how it stands in contrast to previous, widely recognized for its democratic and egalitarian characteristics. From the 1950 Education Act of comprehensive school reform to the competitive ideals of improved student results in the new Swedish Education Act in 2011, the paper reveals the difference of visions in periods of hopes and periods of despair.

Eagelton T. 2000 Utopia and its opposites. In L. Pantitch and C Leys (Eds.) Necessary and Unnecessary Utopias. Rendlesham: Merlin Press. Halpin D. 2001 Utopianinsm and Education: The Legacy of Thomas More. In British Journal of Educational Studies, 49:3, pp. 299 – 315. Harvey D. 2000 Spaces of Hope. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Lindblad S. & Popkewitz T. Eds. Educational Restructuring. International Perspectives of Traveling Policies. Information Age Publishing. Lundahl L. 2014 Challenge of educational theory in the age of knowledge capitalism. In G. Biesta, J. Allen & R. Edwards (Eds). Making a Difference in Theory. The theory question in education and the education question in theory. London and New York: Routledge. Paulston R.G. 1966 The Swedish Comprehensive School Reform: A Selected Annotated Biography. In Comparative Education Review. Vol. 10, pp 87- 94. Richardson G. 1978 Svensk skolpolitik 1940 – 1945. Liber förlag.