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The article analyzes the effects of the current transformations of Swedish upper secondary education emerging from the marketization brought about by the introduction of school vouchers in the 90s and, in the Stockholm region, of a free competition for admission. The rapid expansion of private or “independent” schools and the double competition between schools trying to attract students and students competing to enter into schools have resulted in the creation of numerous “profiled” study programs offering a unique mix of courses. Interviews show that the free choice of education in combination with blurred institutional frontiers make families’ educational strategies increasingly dependant on their culturally framed capacity to interpret and “construct” educational differences. A statistical analysis of student recruitment in the Stockholm region shows that the space of upper secondary education comprises two dimensions. A first one that opposes socially and scholarly highly ranked schools and study programs to those with a low recruitment profile, and a second one separates schools recruiting students from families with a strong cultural capital to those receiving most of their students from families with strong economic capital. In this increasingly hierarchic and structured universe, individual schools tend to occupy positions pertaining to specific niches. An analysis of the Internet home pages of 39 upper secondary schools show that these oppositions are mirrored by the ones that structure the universe of symbolic values put forward at these pages.

Interest in more sustainable energy sources has increased rapidly in the maritime industry, and ambitious goals have been set for decreasing ship emissions. All industry stakeholders have reacted to this with different approaches including the optimisation of ship power plants, the development of new energy-improving sub-systems for existing solutions, or the design of entirely novel power plant concepts employing alternative fuels. This paper assesses the feasibility of different ship energy sources for an icebreaking Arctic research ship. To that end, possible energy sources are assessed based on fuel, infrastructure availability and operational endurance criteria in the operational area of interest. Promising alternatives are analysed further using the evidence-based Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) method. Then, a more thorough investigation with respect to the required fuel tank space, life cycle cost, and CO2 emissions is implemented. The results demonstrate that marine diesel oil (MDO) is currently still the most convenient solution due to the space, operational range, and endurance limitations, although it is possible to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) and methanol if the ship’s arrangement is radically redesigned, which will also lead to reduced emissions and life cycle costs. The use of liquefied hydrogen as the only energy solution for the considered vessel was excluded from the potential options due to low volumetric energy density, and high life cycle and capital costs. Even if it is used with MDO for the investigated ship, the reduction in CO2 emissions will not be as significant as for LNG and methanol, at a much higher capital and lifecycle cost. The advantage of the proposed approach is that unrealistic alternatives are eliminated in a systematic manner before proceeding to detailed techno-economic analysis, facilitating the decision-making and investigation of various options in a more holistic manner.