Session Information
23 SES 06 C, Policies of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education
Paper Session
Contribution
Lifelong learning (LLL) has been seen as a required response to rapid growth of economic, technologic and societal pressures since the 1960s (e.g. Biesta 2006; Olssen 2008). Nowadays the ideology of LLL has become an unquestionable truth which most scholars say is governed by the hegemonical discourse of economy. (e.g. Fejes 2006; Olssen 2008.) This paper focuses on the history of LLL. ´The modern history of LLL´ is analyzed by using Foucauldian genealogical approach and analytics of government as a ´lens´.
Scholars have divided the history of LLL in European context to three different generations. (e.g. Rubenson 2006; Biesta 2006; Olssen 2008; Centeno 2011) In this study, generations are not seen as clear cut periods - more as overlapping each other. From the analytics of government perspective, generations are related to liberal art of government and change of political rationalizations from ´social´ to ´neoliberal´ governmentality. The policy or ideology of lifelong learning has been one of the key elements of constructing desired subjectivity in different times. Lifelong learning is not only a concept in education politics but also a technology of governmentality, regulated by rationalities to govern ´the self´ of the ´active citizen´. (e.g. Fejes 2006; 2013; Olssen 2008.)
The aim of the research is to analyze the history of LLL from the genealogical perspective and in terms of analytics of governmentality. How lifelong learning has functioned as a technology of governmentality in political rationalizations in time since the 1960s? What kind of discourses have occurred during different times? What kind of subjectivity has been constructed in different generations?
Genealogy can be described as an incitement to study the form and consequences of universals in particular historical situations and practices grounded in problems raised in the course of particular social and political struggles (e.g. Foucault 1997). The relation of genealogy to present-day genealogy is anti-anachronistic. Past formations are not read as previous circumstances or necessary stages towards the present. (Dean 1999; Rose 1999.)
The Foucauldian concept of governmentality refers to power relations, where one regulates his own conduct (the conduct of conduct) according to the taken-for-granted rationalities (Foucault 2010a; 2010b). In this paper, LLL is studied as a technology of governmentality in different political rationalities. Foucault´s own work on governmentality implied that one could identify specific political rationalizations emerging in precise sites and at specific historical moments, and underpinned by coherent systems of thought, and that one could also show how different kinds of calculations, strategies and tactics were linked to each. (Rose 1999, 24; Foucault 1991.)
Liberalism, welfare or neo-liberalism, studied from the perspective of governmentality, should be understood as individuating a multiplicity of attempts to rationalize the nature and means and styles of governing, techniques and practices to which they become linked. (Rose 1999, 28.) The state is constituted by discourses, ideologies, worldviews and different styles of thought that allow political actors to develop strategies. In political rationalities these symbolic devices define who may qualify as a political subject or citizen. (Lemke 2012, 28.)
Foucault distinguished four different type of technologies. In this study focus is on two technologies. “Technologies of power” are technologies which govern the conduct of individuals and their behavior towards certain desired outcomes and objectivize the subject. “Technologies of the self” enable individuals conduct themselves by their own means through a certain number of operations on their own souls and bodies, thoughts and behavior etc. Through these technologies individuals can transform themselves in order to get happiness, wisdom, salvation, perfection or respect, for instance. (Foucault 1988.)
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Arribas-Ayllon, M. & Walkerdine, V. 2008. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis In Carla Willig & Wendy Stainton-Rogers (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology. SAGE Publications Ltd: London. 91-109. Biesta, G. 2006. What´s the point of Lifelong Learning if Lifelong Learning Has No Point? On the Democratic Deficit of Policies for Lifelong Learning. European Educational Research Journal, 5 (3 & 4), 169–180. Centeno, V. 2011. Lifelong learning: a policy concept with a long past but a short history. International Journal of Lifelong Learning. Vol. 30 (2). 133-150. Dean, M. 1999. Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage Publications. Fejes, A. 2006. Constructing the Adult Learner: A Governmentality Analysis, Linköping:Liu-Tryck. Fejes, A. 2008. What´s the use of Foucault in research on lifelong learning and post-compulsory education? A review of four academic journals. Studies in the Education of Adults. Vol. 40 (1). 7-23. Fejes, A. & Dahlstedt, M. 2013. The Confession Society. Foucault, confession and practices of lifelong learning. London: Routledge. Foucault, M. 1988. Technologies of the Self. In L. H. Martin, H. Gutman & P.H. Hutton (eds.) Technologies of the Self. A Seminar With Michel Foucault. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press. Foucault, M. 1991. Governmentality. In Burchell, G., Gordon, C. & Miller, P. (eds.) The Foucault Effect. Studies in Governmentality. With two lectures and an interview with Michel Foucault. Harvester Wheatshaf: London. Foucault, M. 1997. “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” In D.F. Bouchard (eds.) Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Foucault, M. 2010a. Seksualisuuden historia (The History of Sexuality).Suom. Kaisa Sivenius. Gaudeamus: Helsinki. Foucault, M. 2010b. Turvallisuus, alue, väestö. Hallinnallisuuden historia. (Security, Territory, Population) Collège de Francen luennot 1977-1978. Suom. Antti Paakkari. Tutkijaliitto: Helsinki. Gale, T. 2001. Critical policy sociology: historiography, archaeology and genealogy as methods of policy analysis. Journal of Education Policy, 16 (5), 379-393. Lemke, T. 2012. Foucault, Governmentality, and Critique. Paradigm Publishers: London. Nicoll, K. & Fejes, A. 2008. Mobilizing Foucault in studies of Lifelong Learning. In Nicoll, K & Fejes, A. (eds.) Foucault and Lifelong Learning. Governing the Subject. Routledge: London. Olssen, M. 2008. Understanding the mechanisms of neoliberal control. Lifelong learning, flexibility and knowledge capitalism. In Fejes, A & Nicoll, K (eds.) Foucault and lifelong learning. Governing the subject. London: Routledge. 34-47. Rose, N. 1999. Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge. Rubenson, K. 2006. The Nordic model of Lifelong Learning. Compare, 36 (3), 327–341.
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