ABSTRACT
In contemporary Western policy narratives of the welfare/post-welfare state lifelong learning is put forward as a way to keep individual nations and the European Union at the forefront of education, research and the economy. In Sweden, much as elsewhere, adult education, learning at work and learning during leisure time are narrated as contexts where the vision of lifelong learning is able to be realized (ME 1998). Within such narratives there is a promise of betterment for all; everyone is to be included in lifelong learning as a way of achieving their desires in life. Learning is constructed as a way of reaching ‘paradise’ (Popkewitz 2003) at the same time as it constructs sites for governing.
