Learning for a Living? - The Powerful, the Dispossessed and the Learning Revolution (Paperback)

The political consensus on lifelong learning that marked the end of the twentieth century fundamentally reshaped discourses on the role of lifelong learning. In a knowledge-driven economy, in which work is the new consumption, we are engaged in a lifelong competition for livelihoods, learning for the living. The lecture argues first that a learning revolution that reinforces inequalities and increases the gap between the powerful and the powerless is not a revolution; that popular beliefs in meritocracy and the openness of opportunities to all could evaporate very quickly as it becomes apparent that the qualifications chase eventually becomes a zero-sum game for all but the most advantaged. Finally, re-establishing the relationship between education and real life will mean linking learning for a living to wider social purposes. Demands that people should take more control of their lives have to be matched with expanded social entitlements, as a minimum condition for a learning revolution worthy of the name.