LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Ari Antikainen: Abstract

Participation, Welfare Regime, and Life History

What are the benefits of participation in adult education and lifelong learning to a society and its individual members? This is the question I examine in the light of both the survey method and the biographical method. My perspective comprises three dialectical relationships:

Global and local (or national). How does participation vary by welfare regime? What are the differences among countries representing the Nordic, the liberal, and the conservative welfare state model (Esping-Andersen)? Is the Nordic model more timely than ever?

Continuity and change. Education and adult education reproduce the social class structure. What are the possibilities of levelling class differences in the direction of equal opportunities? Could education policy, the use of information technology, and state interventions make a difference? Is there (still) room for Bildung?

Institutional and creative. It is always the individual who decides about participation in adult education and learning. What interests do individuals have? Where does the participation fit in to the individual’s life course? What sorts of learning histories, or contextualized life stories, can we find? What are the preconditions of empowerment?