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Fredrik Sandberg

Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer

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Individualisation in Swedish Adult Education and the Shaping of Neo-liberal Subjectivities

Author

  • Andreas Fejes
  • Maria Olson
  • Lina Rahm
  • Magnus Dahlstedt
  • Fredrik Sandberg

Summary, in English

In this article we have analysed the ways a discourse on individualisation is taking shape within adult education in Sweden, how it operates, and what effects it has in terms of shaping student subjectivity. Drawing on a post-structural theorisation we analyse interviews with teachers and students in municipal adult education and folk high schools (FHS). The analysis illustrates how both institutions contribute to the shaping of individualised subjectivities, although differently. At the end, a general question is raised about what happens with the democratic function of adult education in general when a discourse on individualisation operates in the ways described and, more specifically, asks what is happening to FHS as an educational practice that upholds its self-image as a last bastion of a collective notion of learning and subjectivity and nurturing an educational practice of learning democracy?

Publishing year

2018

Language

English

Pages

461-473

Publication/Series

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research

Volume

62

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Educational Sciences

Keywords

  • Adult education
  • folk high schools
  • governmentality
  • individualisation
  • municipal adult education
  • popular education

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0031-3831