Democracy, Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society: Active Citizenship in a Late Modern Age
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This is a book with a difference: it produces a completely new perspective on lifelong learning and the learning society and locates them within humanity itself. Five themes run through this book:Humankind has always been aware of the imperfections of human society: as a consequence, it has looked back to a mythological past and forward to a utopian future that might be religious, political, economic or even educational to find something better.Lifelong learning as we currently see it is like two sides of the same coin: we learn in order to be workers who produce, and learn we have a need to consume. We then devour the commodities we have produced, whilst others take the profits!One of the greatest paradoxes of the human condition has been the place of the individual in the group/community, or conversely how the groups allow the individual to exist rather than stifle individuality Modernity is flawed and the type of society that we currently have, which we in the West call a learning society, is in need of an ethical overhaul in this late modern age.There is a need to bring a different perspective – both political and ethical – on lifelong learning and the learning society in order to try to understand what the good society and the good life might become. In Democracy, Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society, the third volume of his trilogy on lifelong learning, Professor Jarvis expertly addresses the issues that arise from the vision of the learning society. The book concludes that since human beings continue to learn, so the learning society must be a process within the incomplete project of humanity. All three books in the trilogy will be essential reading for students in education, HRD and teaching and learning generally, in addition to academics and informed practitioners.The Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society TrilogyVolume 1: Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Human LearningVolume 2: Globalisation, Lifelong Learning and the Learning SocietyVolume 3: Democracy, Lifelong Learning and the Learning SocietyPeter Jarvis is an internationally renowned expert in the field of adult learning and continuing education. He is Professor of Continuing Education at the University of Surrey, UK, and honorary Adjunct Professor in Adult Education at the University of Georgia, USA.
List of figures and tables viiiIntroduction 11 Lifelong learning and the learning society 3Lifelong learning 4Towards the learning society? 20The nature of power 28Conclusion 322 Global and local lifelong learning policies in the knowledge economy 34Towards a general model of social pressures to produce lifelong learning policies 34International political agencies 36National policies 50Regional and local responses 56Non-governmental organisations 56Conclusion 573 The spirit and values of modernity 60The development and utilisation of scientific and technological knowledge 61Individualism and freedom 64Rationality and pragmatism 74Conclusion 784 Capitalism and society 80Mercantile capitalism and religion 81Industrial capitalism, the church and the state 83Global capital and the weakened state 87Conclusion 915 The information society: learning global capitalist culture 92Global capitalist culture 92The information society 97Lifelong learning and the global capitalist culture 102Conclusion 1086 Indoctrination and the learning society 109Indoctrination, brainwashing and thought reform 110Indoctrination and education 111Learning and brain washing 117Global totalism 118Conclusion 1207 Ethics and modernity 123The nature of the ethical good 123The stages of moral development 137Ethical values and modernity 139The ethics of a modern capitalist society 146Conclusion 1488 The ethics of lifelong learning and the learning society in global capitalist society 149Lifelong learning 149The learning society 157Towards a good learning society? 158Conclusion 1619Democracy and the learning society 163The concept of democracy 164Models of democracy 168Rawls' theory of liberal democracy 170Democracy as a learning society 174Conclusion 17710 Utopia deferred 179The concept of Utopia 181Political visions of Utopia 182Fatal flaws in modern economic thought 183Education's Utopia: the learning society 186The education of desire 190Conclusion 19111 Back to the beginning? 193Time and change 194After virtue 196The agapistic relationship 198Towards a justification of agape as the universal basis of morality 200Another Utopia? 204Conclusion 20712 A revolution in learning: a vision of a better learning society 209Communitas, democracy and the learning society 212The public debate: morality and politics 216Prophets, teachers and leaders 220Conclusion 224Notes 226Bibliography 233Index 242
