Welcome to the smorgasbord, please help yourself!: deconstructing the individual in contemporary lifelong learning discourses

In contemporary Western discourses on lifelong learning, the ideal individual is being described as the active, self-directed, free agent lifelong learner. This paper explores the language of lifelong learning focusing on its implications for the individual by critically examining its inherent construction of the capable man, who is supposed to be successful within and useful for the so-called learning society. When socially constructing the ideal individual for the ideal society, the opposite, ‘the undesirable other’, is simultaneously implicitly being constructed, here referred to as the disabled man.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

In contemporary Western discourses on lifelong learning, the ideal individual is being described as the active, self-directed, free agent lifelong learner. This paper explores the language of lifelong learning focusing on its implications for the individual by critically examining its inherent construction of the capable man, who is supposed to be successful within and useful for the so-called learning society. When socially constructing the ideal individual for the ideal society, the opposite, ‘the undesirable other’, is simultaneously implicitly being constructed, here referred to as ...  [+] Show more