The aim of this paper presentation is to identify how the principles of democracy and the market are played out in Swedish adult education. More specifically, we focus on how collective and individually oriented notions of what it means to be a citizen, shape student subjectivity. By focusing on both formal adult education (municipal adult education) and non-formal adult education (folk high schools) we wish to illustrate how these principles are mobilized differently, thus shaping different kinds of citizen subjectivities. Drawing on a post structural theorization inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, we analyse interviews with students and teachers at one school for municipal adult education, as well as one folk high school. Our analysis illustrates how an individually oriented citizen is shaped through discourses mobilized in both settings. However, in the folk highs school, individualization is shaped through discourses on collectivization. We argue that such shaping are in line with neoliberal forms of governance.