Since 2007, the rise of markets for teaching and learning has turned education into one of the fastest growing markets worldwide, with recent prophecies suggesting a staggering $10 Trillion education industry in 2030 (HolonIQ, 2020). Spearheaded by massive infrastructural investments in digitization, Venture Capital investments in companies working in education are at a record high: Annual Venture Capital (VC) investments in European education start-ups grew from 140 million USD in 2014 to 2.5 billion USD in 2021 (Brighteye Ventures, 2022).

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Of particular relevance here is the ongoing branding of the Nordic countries as commercial export-havens for a more student-centred approach to education, with companies and transnational organizations performatively asserting a techno-pedagogical imaginary where LEGO-bricks, learning platforms, and maker-spaces based on ‘Nordic values’ (Nordic EdTech, 2021) will lead the way towards student empowerment across the globe (HolonIQ, 2020; Rönnberg, 2017).

Lucas COne & Lejf Moos

Cone, L., & Moos, L. (2022). Introduction: mapping commercial interests and imaginaries in Nordic education. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 8(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2022.2045164