This study is about how the study associations belonging to the liberal adult

education deal with their role under New Public Management (NPM). Since the

beginning of the ’90’s the study associations have been engaged in the state

program for education of the unemployed. State financed education of the

unemployed was in the beginning managed by objectives with direct grants. After

about five years the direct grants were discontinued, and the responsibility for this

education was transferred to the local authority. With different kinds of

competitive purchase systems the study organizations became actors on the

educational market. Key issues of voluntary organizations are the ideas or the

particular nature for which they were created, and which forms the basis for their

activities. When introducing competitive markets these ideas risk being bent in

order to meet the demands of the market.

The question of this dissertation is how the study associations describe their

identity when they move from being the receiver of grants under management by

objectives into being self-financed actors on the educational market. By using

rhetoric analyses this thesis shows how a discourse of the liberal adult education

can be transferred and used in a new context of an education for the labor market.

In this context the argumentation is characterized by the rhetoric of a

professional. At the same time the language of pathos remains. In the new way of

talking about their activities, pathos and logos have been combined so that both

directions are important for the commissioned education. Some examples of

expressions of pathos are free and voluntary (fritt och frivilligt) which historically

has been an objective of the liberal adult education. In the new context this notion

stands out as a pedagogical way of working for participants with needs for

particular support.