Rethinking Adult education: actors and dynamics of lifelong learning policies

The emphasis of the new spirit of capitalism about “employability” has affected the European educational policies of the last decades (Boltanski & Chiapello, 2005). In particular, at Community level, the rhetoric of lifelong learning has always been linked to a strong neo-liberal mindset, emphasizing the presence of both winners and losers as the inevitable result of a changing economy (Holford, 2008). The theoretical perspective in which these factors can be understood is that of the transition from the “European Social Model” to what is now called “Social investment state” (Giddens, 2014). Moreover, within a neoliberal political agenda deeply oriented to express a new perspective for welfare activities, globalization process has caused a fracture between the social system and the actors. Given these premises, how is it possible to re-think Adult Education policies with an emancipatory approach aimed at all people, especially migrants, one of the main educational target in democracy? The attainment of some opposite goals, the decrease in number of interventions and the needs of shared tools are some indicators of the challenges that must be overcame. How is the educational system responding to the new social protection needs that emerge as a consequence of the financial crisis? In this regard, expected a new monitoring system, which gives us a more articulated reading of reality and a reliable evaluations of policies and practices (Milana & Holford, 2014), and the development of models which are able to understand the trajectories of social exclusion, giving the right consideration to “learner’s voices” (Formenti & Castiglioni 2014). The target is to contribute to the discussion about the results of the policies in the public sphere, by sharing the elements of the produced analysis with the scientific community.