This ongoing project, conducted in four municipalities in Sweden, is investigating the ways in which schools and teaching are affected by various local communities and the ways in which central directives are transformed into a local educational reality. A diverse range of data have been collected, including demographic data from the municipalities, data on education authorities and school boards, intensive studies of work in individual schools, data on student achievement, and data on opinions of school personnel and students. These variegated data are derived from specific case studies which are simultaneously being treated thematically, so that analyses are proceeding on the basis of interaction between general data analyses and specific analyses of specific phenomena and processes. The idea is to build a "network" of analyses which, at the final stage, can be summarized and given an intelligible framework for assessing stability and change in compulsory schools. A brief summary illustration is provided of one facet of this inquiry that addresses the issue of political control. References are included. (TE)