Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Full download Lifelong Learning, Young Adults and the Challenges of Disadvantage in Europe John Holford file pdf all chapter on 2024
Full download Lifelong Learning, Young Adults and the Challenges of Disadvantage in Europe John Holford file pdf all chapter on 2024
Full download Lifelong Learning, Young Adults and the Challenges of Disadvantage in Europe John Holford file pdf all chapter on 2024
https://ebookmass.com/product/peers-for-young-adults-social-
skills-training-for-adults-with-autism-spectrum-disorder-and-
other-social-challenges-1st-edition-ebook-pdf-version/
https://ebookmass.com/product/epistemologies-and-ethics-in-adult-
education-and-lifelong-learning-richard-g-bagnall/
https://ebookmass.com/product/radiotherapy-and-the-cancers-of-
children-teenagers-and-young-adults-illustrated-edition-tom-
boterberg/
https://ebookmass.com/product/transforming-perspectives-in-
lifelong-learning-and-adult-education-a-dialogue-1st-ed-edition-
laura-formenti/
Europe's Lifelong Learning Markets, Governance and
Policy: Using an Instruments Approach 1st ed. Edition
Marcella Milana
https://ebookmass.com/product/europes-lifelong-learning-markets-
governance-and-policy-using-an-instruments-approach-1st-ed-
edition-marcella-milana/
https://ebookmass.com/product/ethnopolitics-in-the-new-europe-
john-t-ishiyama/
https://ebookmass.com/product/learning-the-art-of-helping-
building-blocks-and-techniques-6th-edition-mark-e-young/
https://ebookmass.com/product/popular-culture-voice-and-
linguistic-diversity-young-adults-on-and-offline-1st-edition-
sender-dovchin/
https://ebookmass.com/product/health-reforms-in-post-communist-
eastern-europe-the-politics-of-policy-learning-tamara-popic/
PALGRAVE STUDIES IN
ADULT EDUCATION
AND LIFELONG LEARNING
Lifelong Learning,
Young Adults and the
Challenges of
Disadvantage in Europe
Edited by
John Holford
Pepka Boyadjieva
Sharon Clancy
Günter Hefler
Ivana Studená
Palgrave Studies in Adult Education and
Lifelong Learning
Series Editors
Marcella Milana
Department of Human Sciences
University of Verona
Verona, Italy
John Holford
School of Education
University of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK
This series explores adult education and lifelong learning, emphasising
the tensions between universal models and approaches that value local
cultures, traditions, histories, and mutual understanding between diverse
communities. Contributions to this series contribute original knowledge
and insights in adult education and lifelong learning, based on original
empirical research and deep theoretical analysis, and stimulate debate on
policy and practice. Books are geographically broad, drawing on contri-
butions from within and without the Anglophone world, and encompass
research-based monographs and edited collections, thematic edited col-
lections addressing key issues in the field, and trenchant overviews
designed to stimulate intellectual debate among wider audiences.
John Holford • Pepka Boyadjieva
Sharon Clancy • Günter Hefler
Ivana Studená
Editors
Lifelong Learning,
Young Adults and
the Challenges of
Disadvantage
in Europe
Editors
John Holford Pepka Boyadjieva
School of Education Institute of Philosophy and Sociology
University of Nottingham Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Nottingham, UK Sofia, Bulgaria
Ivana Studená
Institute for Forecasting, CSPS
Slovak Academy of Sciences
Bratislava, Slovakia
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2023. This book is an open access publication.
Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative Commons
licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book’s
Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the
permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
In memory of Professor Robert (Bob) John, whose enlightened learning and
enlivening comradeship showed social scientists that computer science
can be humane too.
Foreword
vii
viii Foreword
Despite such potential for adult learning, and despite paying lip-
service to wider aims, the strategic rationality of steering mechanisms of
power and money—as manifested through commodification, markets
and the administrative apparatus of the state—over-emphasise the eco-
nomic dimension of adult learning in policy and practice. Scholarly
empirical-analytic and hermeneutic efforts which attempt to move us
beyond these narrow forms of interests—such as collected in this book—
are of immense value to help policymakers and other stakeholders reach
a more synthetic view and understanding of adult learning as being a core
element of a vibrant civil society. This includes the capacity of civil soci-
ety to hold power to account vis-à-vis both stated goals and aspirations
associated with freedom and justice.
This more synthetic view and understanding implies the need to
encompass and emphasise adult learning’s role in enabling the interpreta-
tion of meanings that define practical reason. In so doing, it helps guide
action and moral deliberation in social and cultural life—and not least in
working life in both public and private sectors. Further, it implies the
need to embrace the critical-emancipatory purpose of adult learning: to
engage with knowledge about power and the associated normative issues
of freedom and justice, which are so central to liberal democratic gover-
nance and human rights (e.g. as outlined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights). Of course, these are not mutually exclusive and together
may be indicative of quality in terms of what counts as effective organised
learning, including for working life.
This book engages thoroughly with a synthetic view of adult learning
and its potential role in market democracies. At the same time, it pro-
vides a rich source of empirical-analytic knowledge about conditions and
circumstances surrounding adult learning in various contexts and at dif-
ferent levels of analysis. In so doing, for example, by enriching the con-
cept of bounded agency, it reveals the complex role of policy and
institutions in structurally enabling and/or constraining individuals to
learn. It raises key questions and issues, as well as alternatives to consider,
Foreword ix
Not so long ago, Europe was ‘the future’: in the immediate aftermath of
the Cold War, the European Union offered not only a new home for
emerging democratic market economies, but a new kind of international
organisation combining democratic governance, social welfare, tolerance
and the rule of law. Thirty years on, the European project faces multiple
challenges. The employment problem remains. Economies may have
recovered—just about—from the post-2008 crash, but technological
change gathers still more pace, and the long-term impact of the Covid-19
pandemic remains unclear. Migration continues—within the EU and
from beyond its borders. Artificial intelligence threatens even the most
skilled workers. Labour markets, welfare systems and political institu-
tions seem ill-prepared for the challenges. Inequality grows. One of the
European Union’s largest member states (the UK) has turned its back on
the project. Forms of authoritarian, nationalist ‘populism’—unparalleled
since 1945—are on the rise: several EU member states are now governed
by such politics.
This book focuses on the role of lifelong learning in Europe’s present
and future. From the early 1990s, the European Commission has woven
a new thread into the EU’s fabric: lifelong learning. First deployed for its
potential contribution to competitiveness and solving the ‘employment
problem’, by the turn of the millennium, it was being officially
xi
xii Preface
1
Enliven: ‘Encouraging Lifelong Learning for an Inclusive and Vibrant Europe’. The project and
the open access publication of this book were supported by the European Commission under its
Horizon 2020 research programme (Grant No. 693989).
Preface xiii
behaviour, they remain skewed. In particular, there are much larger (and
probably more reliable and comparable) datasets about economic activity
than about other aspects of social life. Nevertheless, the quest for techno-
logical solutions continues.
The main focus of this book is young adults—especially those rela-
tively less-advantaged young adults who, on leaving school, do not enter
full-time higher education. This group has been a central EU policy con-
cern in recent years—not least because, in the wake of the 2008 crash,
one in every four Europeans under 25 was unemployed (in some coun-
tries, one in two). Unemployment among the young is known to gener-
ate long-term ‘scarring’, not to mention social exclusion and disaffection.
These threaten economic competitiveness, social cohesion, and the
European project as a whole.
However, we approach the education of young adults from the per-
spective of adult education. This means it takes a particular normative
position. We do not see education and training for young adults as ‘prep-
aration’ for adulthood: we view education as integral throughout the life
course. Education is taken to relate to the full breadth of human life and
experience—‘life-wide’ as well as ‘lifelong’—and so the contributors are
sceptical of a narrow policy focus on ‘employability’ and workplace skills.
Education throughout life is seen as fundamental to democratic societies.
And the education of free citizens is seen as a process to which citizens
must contribute freely: they should not be the passive recipients of educa-
tion designed by their ‘superiors’ but must be able to participate actively
and democratically, on a basis of equality, in shaping what and how they
study and learn.
From this perspective, ‘making policy’ for lifelong learning presents
particularly intractable challenges. Social policy is inevitably the product
of contributions at multiple levels, and by diverse ‘actors’, even within a
single country. This is still more true in a complex multinational polity
such as the EU. At many of these levels, policy is subject to formal shap-
ing by ‘democratic’ institutions of various kinds: these establish principles
and objectives, modes of operation and regulation, and organisations and
institutions, for education. Yet adults participate in education not merely
as the objects of policy, but as citizens who are—and perhaps more impor-
tantly, often feel—entitled to be active subjects in shaping how they learn
xiv Preface
and are to be educated. There are, of course, also actors who think their
expertise, professionalism, or bureaucratic role make their contribution
to policy particularly important or more legitimate.
This book therefore examines lifelong learning in Europe from a criti-
cal perspective. It argues, on the basis of a major multinational research
project, for the strengthening of informed debate about how lifelong
learning should be organised and what Europe’s aims in it should be.
Around the turn of the millennium, a critical perspective emerged
within the European Commission about its own governance. The very
term ‘governance’ was used to refer to an attempt to reshape EU institu-
tions to address problems of growing distance between the European
project—as represented in institutions such as the Commission and the
European Parliament—and its citizens. The Commission’s then president
spoke of the EU needing ‘a new, more democratic form of partnership …
between civil society and the other actors involved in governance, …
consulting one another on a whole range of issues; shaping, implement-
ing and monitoring policy together’. Democracy should be ‘much more
direct, more participatory’. This was necessary ‘to make a success of [EU]
enlargement’, and so that ‘democracy and respect for human rights as
well as sound economic policies become the norm’ (Prodi, 2000, empha-
sis in original; see also European Commission, 2001). However, in the
same speech, he warned that there was ‘no established method of prevent-
ing the European agenda from being hijacked by the strongest and most
vocal lobbyists’. So it proved: rather than Europe being ‘built by the citi-
zens for the citizens’, corporate advocates of neoliberal markets took con-
trol of the Lisbon strategy.
European adult education traditions and experience show that lifelong
learning cannot be restricted to delivering a workforce with requisite
skills—even if leavened with aims of equity and social inclusion. Rather,
learning in adulthood is an essential part of enabling citizens to play a full
and active role in shaping Europe as an educated democracy. We believe
our contributors’ positioning as adult educators enriches the book. Adult
education is seen not simply as the product of policy development by
governments but as the outcome of initiative by emancipatory social
movements, including educational social movements, many associated
with labour and the working class. The contributors take the view that
Preface xv
one of the weaknesses of the EU’s approach to lifelong learning has been
its conscious distancing from the critical, emancipatory, and often anti-
capitalist heritage of adult education.
In the book, we also apply an innovative theoretical perspective:
‘bounded agency’. This provides a theoretical basis for marrying analyses
of the behaviour and preferences of individuals with the institutional
structures which comprise the societies in which they live. This is particu-
larly important if we are to explore the viability of Artificial Intelligence-
(AI-) based policy modelling in lifelong learning. Behavioural approaches
(e.g. from economics and psychology) are often seen as providing a suf-
ficient basis for modelling and accurately predicting human behaviour—
particularly when combined with computer-based technologies. Many
computational social scientists recognise that the use of AI in addressing
social problems is at an embryonic stage, while ‘real world’ events, such
as the financial crash, not to mention the recent pandemic, periodically
expose the limitations of behaviourally based models (MacKenzie, 2011,
MacKenzie & Spears 2014). The present book is informed by an attempt
to apply AI in lifelong learning policy, but to do so on the basis of inter-
disciplinarity, informed by social structural as well as behavioural per-
spectives. Lifelong learning research has shown that institutional and
social structures across the nations of Europe are both persistent, perva-
sive and diverse, and also structure how participation in learning and
motivation to learn differ within and between social groups.
Bounded agency enables us to locate behavioural data within an
institutional-structural framework, making policy debate and decision-
making more realistic, grounded and relevant to the diverse stakeholders
in European societies. Agency is seen as socially situated, influenced but
not determined by social structures and environments (Evans, 2002,
2007; Rubenson & Desjardins, 2009). The concept sees actions in the
contingencies of the present moment as influenced by past habits, by
what people believe to be possible for them in the future, but also by
subjective perceptions of the structures they have to negotiate, the social
landscapes which affect how they act (Evans, Schoon, & Weale, 2013).
Bounded agency is used in various ways across the research: for instance,
in analysing policy, we have applied it through the method of policy
xvi Preface
trails, which allows us to see both the agency of actors and the structures
within which they act.
The book is organised in four parts. The first, ‘Lifelong Learning for an
Inclusive and Vibrant Europe’, comprises two chapters, sets the scene and
outlines the main concepts and approaches used. The second, ‘Policies,
Programmes and Participation’, is made up of seven chapters. They
explore how European policies have conceptualised young people (espe-
cially those regarded as ‘vulnerable’), and why and to what extent differ-
ent groups participate in lifelong learning in Europe. They also include
chapters on adult education and empowerment from the perspective of
the capability approach, on how media use of PIAAC data has shaped
debate about lifelong learning, and about some of the challenges faced in
using artificial intelligence to inform policy in this area. The six chapters
in Part III, ‘Young Adults’ Learning in the Workplace and Beyond’,
explore how workplaces contribute to lifelong learning, especially for
young adults: they show that how employing organisations shape the
workplace plays a vital part in who has an opportunity to learn, and what
they have an opportunity to learn. They also show that what people learn
in the workplace is important not only for what they do at work: it also
affects the character of social and political life. The fourth part,
‘Conclusion’, consists of a single chapter: ‘Adult Education, Learning
Citizens, and the Lessons of Enliven’.
The research on which this book draws, and the costs of open access
publication of this book, were supported by the European Commission;
we acknowledge this with warm thanks. The project was conducted by
teams from ten institutions. Most of these were in Europe, but colleagues
from the University of Melbourne, Australia, were also invaluable. The
research also received rich contributions from three Danish scholars. Our
work was also enriched and challenged by an advisory board comprising
experts from the scientific and policy communities. The members of the
Enliven team and advisory board are listed in Appendix 3. Without their
professionalism, expertise and general enthusiasm, neither the project
nor this book would have been completed: our gratitude cannot be suf-
ficiently expressed.
Though it seems invidious to single out individual members of such a
strong team, we conclude by mentioning two. Ruth Elmer proved an
Preface xvii
References
European Commission. (2001). European Governance: A White Paper. Office for
Official Publications of the European Communities.
Evans, K. (2002) Taking Control of Their Lives? Agency in Young Adult
Transitions in England and the New Germany. Journal of Youth Studies,
5, 245–271.
Evans, K. (2007). Concepts of Bounded Agency in Education, Work and
Personal Lives of Young Adults. International Journal of Psychology, 42(2), 1–9.
Evans, K., Schoon, I., & Weale, M. (2013). Can Lifelong Learning Reshape Life
Chances? British Journal of Educational Studies, 61(1), 25–47.
MacKenzie, D. (2011). The Credit Crisis as a Problem in the Sociology of
Knowledge. American Journal of Sociology, 116(6), 1778–1841.
MacKenzie, D., & Spears, T. (2014). ‘The Formula That Killed Wall Street’: The
Gaussian Copula and Modelling Practices in Investment Banking. Social
Studies of Science, 44, 393–417.
xviii Preface
1 Lifelong
Learning, the European Union, and the Social
Inclusion of Young Adults: Rethinking Policy 3
John Holford
2 Bounded
Agency in Policy and Action: Empowerment,
Agency and Belonging 41
Sharon Clancy and John Holford
3 Vulnerability
in European Lifelong Learning Policies
1992–2018: Seeing Young People as a Problem to Be Fixed? 65
Concepción Maiztegui-Oñate, Triin Roosalu, Alvaro
Moro-Inchaurtieta, and Marti Taru
4 Participation
in Adult Learning: System Characteristics
and Individuals’ Experiences 87
Ellen Boeren, Sofie Cabus, and Alan Mackie
xix
xx Contents
5 Participation
of Vulnerable Young Labour Market Groups
in Job-Related Training: The Effect of Macro-structural
and Institutional Characteristics115
Ellu Saar, Eve-Liis Roosmaa, and Liisa Martma
6 Gender
Gaps in Participation in Adult Education in
Europe: Examining Factors and Barriers143
Rumiana Stoilova, Ellen Boeren, and Petya Ilieva-Trichkova
7 Adult
Education as a Pathway to Empowerment:
Challenges and Possibilities169
Pepka Boyadjieva and Petya Ilieva-Trichkova
8 Governing
Adult Learning Through Influencing Public
Debate: How the Media Use PIAAC Data in Denmark,
Italy and the United Kingdom193
Marcella Milana, Sandra Vatrella, Gosia Klatt, Palle
Rasmussen, and Anne Larson
9 Policy,
Practice and Praxis: Computer-Aided Decision
Support to Enable Policy-Making in Lifelong Learning217
Sharon Clancy and Claire Palmer
10 The
Interplay of Organisational and Individual Bounded
Agency in Workplace Learning: A Framework Approach247
Günter Hefler and Ivana Studená
11 Working
and Learning in the Retail Sector: A Cross-
Country Comparative View273
Ulrik Brandi, Jolien De Norre, Triin Roosalu, Maaris Raudsepp,
and Alesia Khadatovich
Contents xxi
12 Organisational
and Individual Agency in Workplace
Learning in the European Metal Sector299
Vassil Kirov, Ana Isabel Estevez-Gutierrez, Iciar Elexpuru-
Albizuri, Fernando Díez, Lourdes Villardón-Gallego, and Maite
Aurrekoetxea-Casaus
13 Work
and Learning in the Adult Education Sector: A
Cross Country Comparative View325
Sharon Clancy, Günter Hefler, Francesca Rapanà, Eva
Steinheimer, and Ivana Studená
14 Speaking
Up: How Early Career Workers Engage in
Fighting for Better Working Conditions by Joining
Youth-Led Social Movement Organisations351
Maite Aurrekoetxea-Casaus, Edurne Bartolomé Peral, Günter
Hefler, Ivana Studená, and Janine Wulz
15 Early
Career Workers’ Agency in the Workplace: Learning
and Beyond in Cross-Country Comparative Perspective377
Günter Hefler, Denisa Fedáková, Eva Steinheimer, Ivana
Studená, and Janine Wulz
Part IV Conclusion 403
16 Adult
Education, Learning Citizens, and the Lessons of
Enliven405
John Holford, Pepka Boyadjieva, Sharon Clancy, Günter Hefler,
and Ivana Studená
Appendix 2: Key Features of Enterprises Studied in Research
on Learning Organisations431
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also
govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most
countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside the
United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms
of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying,
performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this
work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes
no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in
any country other than the United States.
• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the
method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The
fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark,
but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty
payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on
which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your
periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked
as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information
about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation.”
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
1.F.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of
other ways including checks, online payments and credit card
donations. To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.
Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.