The Swedish educational system has during the last decades changed dramatically with respect to organization, system of governance and curriculum (Lundahl et al., 2013). Even though it has always had a degree of segregation the market-oriented reforms implemented in the 1990s have had a great impact towards deeper social and geographical segregation (Fjellman, Yang Hansen & Beach 2018) and schools are becoming more and more socio-economically and ethnically homogeneous (Bunar & Ambrose, 2016; Dovemark & Holm, 2015; Trumberg, 2011). Even though it is, according to the Swedish School Act, forbidden for schools to choose and select students these rules are circumvented through schools' marketing (Dovemark, 2017). Being highly dependent on its success in recruiting students, schools expend economic and personnel resources on marketing their facilities, ethos and programmes. In this sense, students have become ‘commodities’ and ‘customers’ in the schools’ hunt for potential students (Beach & Dovemark, 2009). This development is particularly apparent in upper secondary school. By using the lens of Alhusser’s (1971/2008) concept of ideology this paper will focus on how the reproduction of the social relations of production – with particular focus on the division of ‘intellectual’ and ‘manual’ labor (or the ‘academic-vocational divide’) - is secured within a strong discursive context of democracy and freedom of choice. As Althusser (1971/2008, p. 48) suggests: “…ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way that it ‘recruits’ subjects among the individuals /…/ or ‘transforms’ the individuals into subjects by /…/ interpellation or hailing”. Ideology positions individuals as different subjects “free” to obey or disobey the appeal. If the appeal interpellates the subject in such a way that the subject responds, a recognition is obtained. The subject perceives the place designated for him/her as “theirs in the world” (Althusser, 1971/2008, p. 52); as a graduate, a worker, a boss etc. By analyzing upper secondary schools’ various kinds of marketing materials, including websites and prospectuses of the schools, this paper aims to answer the following questions: (i) what subject positions, as workers and citizens, are prospective students given? (ii) How are these subject positions connected to the social division of labor? The preliminary findings show that schools’ market themselves as unique ‘brands’ in one way or another, hailing different segments of the ‘consumer market’ of students. Different groups of students are recruited to different subject positions in a way which reinforces the division between ‘intellectual’ and ‘manual’ labor.

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