Have lifelong learning and emancipation still something to say to each other?

Abstract

In this paper I explore the relationships between lifelong learning and emancipation. On the one hand I raise critical questions about the idea of lifelong learning, particularly highlighting the tendency to turn social and political problems into learning problems and thus into issues that need to be resolved by individuals and their learning, rather than through collective and structural approaches. Rather than to think of learning as something that is natural and good, I make a case for the denaturalisation of learning so that it can become visible that the question of learning always raises further questions about purpose and politics. Against this background I explore one particular purpose of lifelong learning, which is the idea of emancipation. Making a distinction between monological and dialogical approaches to emancipation I discuss the role of truth and equality and modern understandings of emancipation, taking inspiration from the work of Michel Foucault and Jacques Rancière. This not only leads me to a different articulation of the idea of emancipation, but also allows me to argue the quite different roles that learning plays in emancipation so conceived.

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