Constructing the adult learner: a governmentality analysis

The aim of this dissertation is to study how the adult learner is constructed through different techniques of governing in the practice of adult, liberal adult, and higher education. Further, the aim is to analyse what rationality of governing such governing practices create and are created by. The theoretical framework is based on Michel Foucault s concepts of governmentality and genealogy. Governmentality refers to a specific way of viewing questions of governance where the focus is on ideas concerning how governing should be practiced. These ideas are constructed through discourse. Central questions are: what is the problematic of government, what is to be governed, how is governing to be practiced and what is the teleos (the goal to be reached) of government? Genealogy refers to at specific way of viewing history. The starting point is the figures of thought that are part of the discourses of today. In this dissertation, these discourses are adult education and lifelong learning. What are these discourses made up of and what is the descent and emergence of some of its figures of thought? Here, history is seen as non-linear and containing ruptures and irregularities. The aim is not to tell the story of how it really was, where causality is central. Instead, genealogy is a way for me to destabilize the taken-for-granted ideas of the present concerning the adult learner. A discourse analysis has been conducted based on official documents produced since the 1920s and up to the present day concerning the practices mentioned above. The results point to neo-liberal governmentality dominating the discourses of adult education and lifelong learning today. According to the texts, Sweden and Europe need to make sure that all their citizens are constantly learning as a way of facing an uncertain and constantly changing future. Thus, the adult learner is constructed as a constantly learning and competent subject. All citizens have to become autonomous, self-regulating humans who are constantly learning and who constantly make choices according to their inner desires. Several techniques of governing such as guidance, risk, auditing, assessment, diversity, etc., are constructed as a way of constructing such a subject.