Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to analyse how governing operates in the present time through discourses on lifelong learning and employability. A special interest is directed at what kind of citizen is being shaped through such discourses and how those discourses are taken up and shaped by those who are their target. Drawing on a governmentality perspective, policy documents from the EU and OECD and interviews with care workers in elderly care participating in an in-service training programme have been analysed. The chapter illustrates how care workers are both positioned and position themselves as responsible for their own employability.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
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(2–3), 169–180.
Clarke, M., & Patrickson, M. (2008). The new covenant of employability. Employee Relations, 30(2), 121–141.
European Commission (EC). (2001). Communication from the commission: Making a European area of lifelong learning a reality. Brussels: European Commission, Directorate-general for Education and Culture and Directorate-general for Employment and Social Affairs.
European Commission (EC). (2007). Communication of the commission to the spring European Council: Integrated guidelines for growth and jobs (2008–2010). Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission (EC). (2009). Developing the role of education in a fully-functioning knowledge triangle’. Notices from European Union Institutions and Bodies: Official Journal of the European Union. Council Conclusions 2009. Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission (EC). (2010). Strategic framework for education and training. Brussels: European Commission.
Faure, E. (1972). Learning to be. Paris: UNESCO.
Fejes, A. (2005). New wine in old skins: Changing patterns in the governing of the adult learner in Sweden. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 24(1), 71–86.
Fejes, A. (2006). The planetspeak discourse of lifelong learning in Sweden: What is an educable adult? Journal of Education Policy, 21(6), 697–716.
Fejes, A. (2008a). To be one’s own confessor: Educational guidance and governmentality. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(6), 653–664.
Fejes, A. (2008b). Governing nursing through reflection: A discourse analysis of reflective practices. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 64(3), 243–250.
Fejes, A. (2010). Discourses on employability: Constituting the responsible citizen. Studies in Continuing Education, 32(2), 89–102.
Fejes, A. (2011). Confession, in-service training and reflective practices. British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), 797–812.
Fejes, A. (2012). Knowledge at play: Positioning care workers as professionals through scientific rationality and caring dispositions. In A. Kamp & H. Hvid (Eds.), Elderly care in transition: Management, meaning and identity at work – A Scandinavian perspective (pp. 83–105). Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
Fejes, A., & Andersson, P. (2009). Recognising prior learning. Understanding the relations among experience, learning and recognition from a constructivist perspective. Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education, 2(1), 37–55.
Fejes, A., & Dahlstedt, M. (2012). The confessing society: Foucault, confession and practices of lifelong learning. London: Routledge.
Fejes, A., & Nicoll, K. (Eds.). (2008). Foucault and lifelong learning: Governing the subject. London: Routledge.
Fejes, A., & Nicoll, K. (2010). A vocational calling: Exploring a caring technology in elderly care. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 18(3), 353–370.
Fejes, A., & Nicoll, K. (2011). Activating the worker in elderly care: A technique and tactics of invitation. Studies in Continuing Education, 33(3), 235–249.
Foucault, M. (2007). Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France 1977–1978. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Garsten, C., & Jacobsson, K. (Eds.). (2004). Learning to be employable: New agendas on work, responsibility and learning in a globalized world. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lindeman, E. C. (1926). The meaning of adult education. New York: New Republic.
McQuaid, R. W., & Lindsay, C. (2005). The concept of employability. Urban Studies, 42(2), 197–219.
Nicoll, K., & Fejes, A. (2011). Lifelong learning: A pacification of “know how”. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 30(4), 403–417.
OECD. (1996). Lifelong learning for all. Paris: OECD.
OECD. (1998). Human capital investment: An international comparison. Paris: OECD.
OECD. (2005). Promoting adult learning. Executive summary. Paris: OECD.
Rose, N. (1999). Powers of freedom: Reframing political thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rubenson, K. (2004). Lifelong learning: A critical assessment of the political project. In P. Alheit, R. Becker-Schmidt, T. Gitz-Johansen, L. Ploug, H. Salling Olesen, & K. Rubenson (Eds.), Shaping an emerging reality – Researching lifelong learning (pp. 28–47). Roskilde: Roskilde University Press.
Acknowledgements
The research on which this chapter is based was made possible by a grant from the Swedish Research Council.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fejes, A. (2014). Lifelong Learning and Employability. In: Zarifis, G., Gravani, M. (eds) Challenging the 'European Area of Lifelong Learning'. Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7298-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7299-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)