ABSTRACT
The chapters in this book stage a range of different encounters with the work of Michel Foucault. Through them we not only gain a better understanding of the potential of Foucault’s work but at the same time the chapters shed a different light on policies and practices of lifelong learning. There is, therefore, a double encounter in this book: we encounter Foucault in lifelong learning and we encounter lifelong learning through the eyes of Foucault. Both encounters are, of course, important. Whereas the stated purpose of this book is to gain a new and different understanding of lifelong learning and, through this, to contribute to a reconceptualization of lifelong learning, the book also functions as a ‘test’ of Foucauldian ideas. It reveals strengths and weaknesses of using Foucault to analyse and understand educational practices and processes and the wider strategies and techniques of governing in late-modern, neoliberal societies. For this final chapter this raises two questions: What has this book achieved in understanding and conceptualizing lifelong learning differently? And what does this tell us about the significance of Foucault’s work for this particular endeavour? To address these questions I will focus on three issues:
• the nature of Foucauldian analysis; • the question of normativity; and • the opportunities for change.
