Continuing Education and the Postmodern Arts of Power

Abstract

University continuing educators have recognized that political-economic and institutional changes are making social activism more difficult to sustain. This article argues that to build more effective and vigorous forms of social activism, continuing educators need to understand how systems of oppression are changing. In postmodern societies, patterns of oppression are shifting from centralized, explicitly coercive projects of political domination and economic exploitation, to decentred, subtle processes of constructing individuals with the capacity and the desire to govern themselves. To encourage a different mode of thinking about the nature of oppression and power, some aspects of the work of Michel Foucault are interpreted. To provoke a more creative approach to social activism through university continuing education, the article connects Foucault's abstract.

Verset teen mag: Die pelgrim se reis in drie ‘Sondergut’ gelykenisse in Lukas 15 en 16

“…3.Vir die doeleindes van hierdie voordrag is ek wat sekondêre literatuur betref, ten opsigte van Weber deur veral Wolfgang Mommsen (1992) en ten opsigte van Foucault deur Johann Beukes (2009) en Scott McLean (1996) gelei.…”

Education for Freedom? “Living Room Learning” and the Liberal Arts of Government

“…The work of Michel Foucault has been integral to the efforts of many people to think critically about freedom and government. Overviews of the relevance of Foucault’s work to adult education have been provided by Brookfield (2001), Fejes (2008), and McLean (1996), and numerous studies have examined adult education from a foucauldian perspective (English & Irving, 2008; Fejes & Nicoll, 2008; McLean & Rollwagen, 2008).…”

University Continuing Education Units: Agents for Social Change?

“…It is also easy to see how arguments about the commoditization of education (Noble, 2001), especially distance education, could be applied to large parts of a university continuing education enterprise. Like McLean (1996), Haughey (1998) pointed out that our field needs to look for new theoretical underpinnings, arguing that it is time for adult educators to confront complex social issues through intellectual regeneration, achieved by borrowing from new theoretical approaches.…”

“…Judging from the literature (Alexander, 1997;Burbules & Callister, 2000;Cruikshank, 1994;Haughey, 1998;Isley, 1992;Selman, 1994;Wilson & Cervero, 2001), university continuing educators are divided between those who wish to respond to market demands and those who advocate a return to our social justice roots, what Selman (1985) called the "profession" and the "movement." This debate has been especially prominent in the Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education (Cruikshank, 1996(Cruikshank, , 1998Cunningham, 1992;Hass, 1992;Karpiak & Kops, 1995;Lamble & Thompson, 2000;Lauzon, 2000;McLean, 1996;Selman, 1985;Stern, 1992). We believe that the issue is of central importance to Canadian university continuing educators, but that it is not as polarized as it first appears.…”