In recent years knowledge has been brought forward as an important political issue both in the EU and in Sweden. It is said to be of the uttermost importance not just for education but for society as a whole. As a result of increased globalization and a European striving for economic growth, knowledge has come to be associated with both individual and national competitiveness, and education and learning in schools and workplaces have become a political priority. In this global competition the EU has become an important policy actor in the educational field trying to create a common European education policy field. Despite this development, only a limited number of reports relating the European arena to Swedish educational reforms have been published. Against this background the aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the knowledge discourses which struggle for legitimacy in Swedish and European education policy and how these discourses relate to each other and change over time. The empirical material consists of a number of fundamental official policy texts produced by the EU and the Swedish state. The study takes its theoretical point of departure in critical discourse analysis using an analytical grid where production, content and communication are seen as three aspects constituting every knowledge discourse. The result shows a process of silent Europeanization in Swedish school reform where European knowledge discourse is being re-contextualised and in many cases re-interpreted without any declaration in terms of explicit references. It also confirms the general trend towards increased focus on learning outcomes and demands for measurability. Furthermore, the result shows how competition rhetoric dominating the EU contributes to an increased sense of crisis in both European and Swedish educational reforms. As a result of this crisis rhetoric the study shows how the proactive reform-perspective is being replaced by a retrospective where solving already existing problems replaces the planning of an uncertain future.

Depuis plusieurs années en France et en Europe, le législateur encourage le rapprochement desecteurs d’action publique dans le cadre des politiques d’activation des chômeurs, visant ainsi àmettre en place une approche plus globale et décloisonnée des problématiques d’insertionprofessionnelle. On cherche dans ce travail à analyser les logiques d’action que sous-tendent ceschangements à travers l’étude de leur mise en oeuvre par les acteurs institutionnels locaux et lesagents de terrain en charge de l’accompagnement des demandeurs d’emploi.Trois niveaux d’action publique sont donc analysés : un niveau macro, celui du contexte danslequel se développe l’intersectorialité des politiques de l’emploi en France et en Europe, un niveauméso qui donne à voir la manière dont les acteurs mettent en oeuvre ces politiques sur lesterritoires et enfin un niveau micro qui s’intéresse au travail des agents de terrain.Alors que les rares recherches sur l’intersectorialité ont principalement porté sur le lien entre lesecteur de l’emploi et le secteur de l’action sociale, ce travail s’intéresse plus particulièrement aulien entre le secteur de l’emploi et celui de l’immigration. Ce cas d’intersectorialité permet de faireressortir les variables impactant le rapprochement sectoriel. / Over the past years, the linkage between policy fields has been promoted in France and in Europe,following the development of activation policies, aiming at a more comprehensive anddecompartmentalized approach of professionnal inclusion issues. This work analyses the practisesthat underlie these changes by studying how they are implemented by local institutionnal actorsand street level bureaucrats working with the unemployed.Three level of public action are analysed : a macro level that informs us about the context in whichemployment policies’ cross-sectoriality is developped in France and in Europe, a meso level whichenlightens the way actors implement these policies at the local level, and last, a micro level whichanalyses street level buraucrats’ work.While the few studies on cross-sectoriality focused on the link between the employment and thesocial policy fields, this work will look into the link between the employment and the immigrationpolicy fields. This case of cross-sectoriality will enable us to shed light on the variables that impactsectorial linkages.