Adult Learning & the Challenges of the 21st Century was the title of Theme One at the fifth UNESCO conference on Adult Education in Hamburg July1997. The theme had the following keywords: Adult learning for democracy and human rights; Promoting a culture of peace; Encouraging active citizenship; The Role of NGOs; Poverty alleviation; Adult learning and gender issues; Cultural diversity/minority issues; Indigenous peoples. The Association for World Education was asked by UNESCO to be responsible for Theme One. This book is based upon lectures on this theme given at various AWE conferences.

What do we mean when we say “the people�? The concept did not carry the contemporary meaning of a group of individuals with governing influence and political will until after the invention of democracy and the nation-state. Previously, in the Nordic context, the word people (folk) was associated not with a sovereign nation but rather with home and family. Subjects were only understood in relation to the heads of household (elders and patriarchs), state (kings and lords), and the Christian church.   The term remains a battlefield of mixed or even opposing interests and has developed at least three different meanings: a political unit (demos), a cultural entity (ethnos), and a social multitude (plÉthos). As perceptions of political affinity and society change over time, “the people� will doubtless continue to adopt and adapt its meanings, with ramifications for both personal and group identity.   Modern historian Ove Korsgaard focuses on the crucial struggles over who has (or has not) belonged to the people in the past 175 years and looks at its implications for state- and nation-building in Denmark and other Nordic countries.

The modern meaning of the term the people has developed at least three different meanings: as a political unity (demos), as a cultural entity (ethnos) and as a social entity (plethos). The concept became a battlefield with mixed and even opposing interests - and that is still the case. "The people" is a dynamic concept and can take many shapes. The future depends to a large extent on interpretations of it. This book focuses on some of the crucial struggles over the concept of the people in the past 175 years, and will look at its implications for state-building and nation-building in Denmark and the other Nordic countries.