Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in a wide-ranging international comparative study, the book explores how far the EUs lifelong learning agenda has been successful and what factors have limited its ability to reshape national adult and lifelong learning systems. The chapters also look at adults' participation in formal education, what they see as the obstacles to taking part, and the nature of their demand for learning opportunities.

This book explores European governance and policy coordination within lifelong learning markets. Using an instruments approach, the editors and contributors examine the ways in which governance mechanisms employed by the European Union influence policy to regulate lifelong learning, and intervene in lifelong learning markets, at both European and national levels. Filling an important gap in the current literature, this book examines how strengthened policy coordination at the EU level contributed to the blurring of boundaries between policy fields and the redefinition of the function of adult education after the 2008 recession. Divided into three parts, this book draws on a range of case studies from countries including Spain, Denmark, Bulgaria and the UK. It will be of interest and value to students and scholars of education policy and governance, adult education and lifelong learning.

This book critically reflects on the context in which lifelong learning policies and practices are organized in Europe with contributions of researchers and policy makers in the field. Through a critical lens the book reinterprets the core content of the messages that are conveyed by the European Commission in the “Memorandum for Lifelong Learning”, the most important policy document in the area, which after a decade from its publication still remains the vehicle for all current developments in lifelong learning in Europe. With references to research findings, proposed actions, and applications to immediate practice that have an added value for Europeans –but which either do not appear to correspond directly to what is stipulated by the European Commission, or are completely ignored as part of the lifelong learning process– the book offers an analytic and systematic outlook of the main challenges in creating the ‘European Area of Lifelong Learning’. In times as decisive as the ones we are going through today (both in social and economic terms), a critical perspective of the practices and policies adopted by the EU Member States is essential. The book follows the same structure as the Memorandum in order to debate and critically approach in separate sections the core issues that Europe faces today in relation to the idea of making a ‘European area of Lifelong Learning’. ​

FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE AS OPEN ACCESS BOOK! The European Union is now a key player in making lifelong learning and adult education policy: this is the first book to explore a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives researchers can use to investigate its role. Chapters by leading experts and younger scholars from across Europe and beyond cover the evolution of EU policies, the role of policy ‘actors’ in what is often seen as the ‘black box’ of EU policy-making, and the contribution state theory can make to understanding the EU and its relations with Europe’s nations. They consider what theories of governmentality—drawing on the work of Foucault—can contribute. And they demonstrate how particular methodological approaches, such as ‘policy trails’, and the contribution the sociology of law, can make. Contributors include both specialists in adult education and scholars exploring how work from other disciplines can contribute to this field. This is the first book in a new series from the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, and draws on work within its Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education.

This comprehensive collection discusses topical issues essential to both scholarship and policy making in the realm of Lifelong Learning (LLL) policies and how far they succeed in supporting young people across their life courses, rather than one-sidedly fostering human capital for the economy. Examining specific regional and local contexts across Europe, all various in context, this book uses original research to evaluate differences in scope, approach, orientation, and objectives. It enquires into the embedding of LLL policies into the regional economy, the labour market, education and training systems and the individual life projects of young people, with focus on those in situations of near social exclusion.

For the European Union, lifelong learning has become a means of achieving both competitiveness and social cohesion in an increasingly knowledge-based and globalised economy. Though the concept of lifelong learning is not new, it now coincides with a period of rapid EU expansion. The research project the book is based on examines how lifelong learning is understood and operationalised, especially in countries within the area of the EU's expansion. Europe, its policy-makers and peoples, need to know whether lifelong learning can contribute to the construction of a European identity - and if so, how. The research points to the importance of diverse national contexts, which suggests a single model of lifelong learning across the EU is unlikely to be achieved. While the EU may encourage a common policy, and this may generate significant national policy developments, these will be strongly influenced by national context: institutional, political, social, ideological. Many countries will continue - consciously or unconsciously - to "pick and choose" between different EU priorities.

Lifelong learning and education is a key concept for the development of adult education as an area of practice and theoretical consideration. In recent decades, meanwhile, the idea of lifelong education and learning has been central to the guidance of various international organisations of many countries.