The 'learning society' is not a new idea, although its popularity has grown in recent years with the suggestion that lifelong learning is a condition for economic competitiveness in a global economy, replacing the earlier conception of it as a condition for democratic citizenship. This reader, designed to accompany Module E827 of the MA in Education, critically examines the demographic, technological, economic and cultural challenges which have led to interest in the idea of a learning society, and explores their policy and practical implications for lifelong learning. It also explores and evaluates trends in education and training which support the development of a learning society. Overall, the book provides readers with a range of opinions on the learning society within which broad context they can place their own practice.

This volume of the Open University Reader for Supporting Lifelong Learning looks at policy development in lifelong learning at local, regional, national and supra-national levels. Using an international team of contributors, it explores and examines the policy context for lifelong learning, the policies themselves, and their effects when implemented.
The book focuses on the role of lifelong learning policy in relation to issues of competitiveness, technological change and social inclusion. The provision of a range of chapters from around the globe uniquely establishes a comparative basis for the reader. This volume also encourages the student to evaluate lifelong learning as a response to globalising trends and the globalising of educational policy.

The 'learning society' is not a new idea, although its popularity has grown in recent years with the suggestion that lifelong learning is a condition for economic competitiveness in a global economy, replacing the earlier conception of it as a condition for democratic citizenship.
This reader, designed to accompany Module E827 of the MA in Education, critically examines the demographic, technological, economic and cultural challenges which have led to interest in the idea of a learning society, and explores their policy and practical implications for lifelong learning. It also explores and evaluates trends in education and training which support the development of a learning society. Overall, the book provides readers with a range of opinions on the learning society within which broad context they can place their own practice.

Contents:
1. Themes and Questions for a Research Agenda on Lifelong Learning 2. On a Contradictory Way to the 'Learning Society': A Critical Approach 3. Lifelong Learning and Underemployment in the Knowledge Society: A North American Perspective 4. Social Capital, Human Capital and the Learning Society 5. The Comparative Dimension in Continious Vocational Training: A Preliminary Framework 6. Post School Education and Training Policy in Developmental States: The Cases of Taiwan and South Korea 7. Lifelong Learning and Welfare Reform 8. Change of Address? Educating Economies in Vocational Education and Training 9. Breaking the Concensus: Lifelong Learning as Social Control 10. Governing the Ungovernable: Why Lifelong Learning Policies Promise so Much Yet Deliver so Little