ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we turn attention to adult education as a space for will-formation of students. Drawing on the work of Bülen Diken, we illustrate how citizen formation in adult education operates through processes of students’ rediscovering of their will in order for them to become desirable citizens. We argue that these processes point toward adult education as a space where adult students are formed as certain kinds of citizens, reactive nihilists. Thus, the citizen formation made possible in adult education is marked out by the ‘capability’ to control one’s will-formation, so that the will adapts to the prevailing order of things in late capitalist society. By providing insights into the mechanisms of such citizen formation, we wish to contribute to the body of knowledge about the relationship between citizenship and adult education. In doing so, we can identify some of the challenges concerning citizen formation in adult education.
