Lifelong learning, subjectivity and the totally pedagogised society

Abstract

The lifelong learner is a much over-burdened and over-determined social subject within current education policy and within some current versions of social theory. Lifelong learning indeed is subject to a constant stream of over blown policy statements and lifelong texts are saturated with policy fictions. These statements and texts sketch the outlines and some dimensions of what may be a new social totality, of which lifelong learning is a significant component. This paper explores some of the major elements of this new social totality and is organized around a trajectory of lifelong learning and focuses in particular on three “moments” or scenarios of learning and subjectivity: the pre-school learner and “total mothering”; the post-compulsory learner and workfare society; and the adult learner and “self-help”. Across these moments four inter-weaving discursive themes are identified: enterprise, responsibility, trainability and commodity.