Lebenslanges Lernen im Postfordismus. Zur Transformation von Begründungsfiguren des Lehrens und Lernens

This article investigates the discourse surrounding lifelong learning and examines the question in what way the subjective, e.g. the self and the individual, is referred back to against the backdrop of a post-Fordist rationality of work. Learners are asked to bring their whole person, their subjective potential and biographical experiences into opportunities for learning. Thus they form relationships with themselves that can hardly be regarded as a source of resistance and obstinacy. With respect to Michel Foucault‘s concept of governmentality, an investigation occurs of the forms of power connected with the hypostasis (objectification) of the "subjective factor" which operate less by coercion and control than by incentives and freedom. Against this backdrop, the discourse of lifelong learning should be described as an "educational governance" strategy that reveals the seizure of the subject as a new type of power. This new type of power aims to transform the relationship with the self and thus seems to smooth away the genuine contradiction between conformity and resistance that has characterized educational relationships until now.