"Education for life": the dilemma of pessimism and "moderate optimism" in European political and educational discourses

Abstract

The theme of «Lifelong Learning» has been at the centre of theoretical discussions and political debates for the last several decades, both in the West and in Russia. The overall rhetoric and prevailing practices of using the lifelong learning terminology, with all its socio-political connotations, frequently suffer from a lack of clarity and ambiguity surrounding its interpretation. The official documents and practical policies of the EU and other international organisations demonstrate continuous transformations of their vision of Lifelong Learning itself and of the instruments for its implementation.Drawing on the critical analysis of contemporary research in social theory, the theory of education and the study of political sources, the author aims to recover the genealogy of the terms related to lifelong learning. Comparing the theoretical interpretations of continuing education, the author strives to explore the changing discourses as well as economic imperatives by attempting to demonstrate the relation between changes in terminology and the dynamics of political perspectives and social transformations. In particular, the forms of the institutionalisation of Lifelong Learning in the context of European educational policy are considered, building on the analysis of the major EU documents, programmes and financial instruments for the implementation of educational policy with the general background of the Bologna process and with the view of searching for the ways and practices needed to restore the potential of the concept of Lifelong Learning for political and social action in its initially humanistic meaning — both on the national level and in the global dimension.

Keywords

• lifelong learning
• european education policy
• neoliberalism
• genealogy of meanings