Learning, Work and Social Responsibility
Challenges for Lifelong Learning in a Global Age

Karen Evans
Institute of Education, University of London, UK

Spring 2009. Hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-4020-9758-4
Lifelong Learning Book Series, Volume 13
€ 89.95 | £ 71.00 |
http://www.springer.com/education/education+&+society/book/978-1-4020-9758-4

The political consensus on lifelong learning which marked the end of the
20th century fundamentally reshaped discourses on the role of lifelong
learning. In ‘knowledge-based’ economies, we are engaged in a lifelong
competition for livelihoods; learning for a living as part of a global
learning revolution. The argument (of the author), put simply, revolves
around social justice, and active and engaged citizenry. Policies to
encourage lifelong learning are based on the view that individuals must
learn new things primarily to secure employment in an ever-changing
world. The result of these polices has been to open up unsustainable
inequalities which ordinary people are unlikely to tolerate for much
longer. For politicians, bringing politics closer to the world and
aspirations of ordinary people will mean seeking solutions based on
broader and fairer forms of meritocracy and bringing work and the
pursuit of broader social purposes into a better balance at all levels of
the social world.

Contents
Editorial by Series Editors.- Author’s Introduction.- 1. Learning for a
Living: the powerful, the dispossessed and the learning revolution.- 2. Taking
Control? Early adult life in contrasting social landscapes.- 3. Students
Anticipating the Future.- 4. Workers in Control of the Present?.- 5. Living at the
Margins and Finding Ways to Work.- 6. Gender, Work and Learning.- 7.
Participation, Social Life and Politics.- 8. Beyond Individualisation: human
strivings for control of their lives.- 9. Systems and Societies in Transition:
challenging inequalities, choosing inclusion.- Index.
 

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