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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 (MAE) 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? CC BY 3.0

The aim of this article is to problematize the ways class and gender are played out in adult students’ narratives about their occupational choice and future. Drawing on Beverly Skeggs, we analyse how students think about future occupations, what motivates them towards these and how they are able to form their future in relation to them. Taking on Sweden as a case, our results show that students’ narratives on their future occupations are classed as well as gendered. In their vision of future occupations, working-class students tend to focus on occupations helping and caring for others, while middleclass students tend to focus on work more as a means of fulfilling themselves as individuals. These differences are also gendered. Female students are more likely than their male counterparts to picture their future occupations in relation to having children and a family. This tells us that in the female students’ narratives, there tends to be a strong focus on caring – for their families as well as in future occupations.

The role of education in citizen training has been well mapped out in youtheducation. What has been less studied is how this role comes into being inadult education. By providing illustrative empirical examples from a recentlycompleted study of adult students enrolled in adult education, this articleaims to offer a theoretical response to the question of the role of adulteducation in adult student citizen subjectivity formation. Taking on Diken’sconcept of ‘reactive nihilism’, we wish to make the following arguments. First,that citizen formation in adult education, when students are asked aboutit, is actualised as processes of re(dis)covery of will in order to be(come) asuccessful and happy citizen in society. Secondly, that these processes pointtowards a role of adult education as one where these formation processeswork in tandem with those of the reactive nihilists. This means that the citizenformation processes made possible in this educational site are those markedout by the desire to mobilise one’s will formation so that it adapts to theprevailing societal situation—that of late capitalism, which is a situation notconsidered by the adult students as possible to change. CC BY 4.0

Paradoxes of citizen formation: Citizenship positioning in stories about belonging in an era of migration This article analyzes the formation of citizenship in today’s multi-ethnic Sweden with a particular focus on how migration renders visible existing citizenship ideals, defined in terms of similarity and difference on the basis of ethno-cultural background. Analysing three individual stories of women who have migrated to Sweden, with different biographies and stories of how they ended up in Sweden, the article focuses on negotiations of the boundaries and contents of citizenship in multi-ethnic Sweden. The point of departure for the analysis is a post-structuralist and discursive approach. In all, the stories address the crucial question of who should be included into the social community and on what conditions – and who should be left out? This particular question is also at the very centre of the political debate in today’s Europe. On the one hand, there are strong arguments about the ’death of multiculturalism’ and demands for new forms of ethno-culturally graduated citizenship – also in Sweden. On the other hand, in Sweden as well as in other European countries, claims for the development of a new and more inclusive societal community have been raised, expanding the rights of citizens to accommodating also those who have been excluded from them. Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

This article explores the role of the interactive researcher by drawing on Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action to develop the concept of virtual participant. An ideal interactive research project is used to explore the issues faced by interactive researchers in three phases – initial, implementation and conclusion. In each phase, an interactive research project is used to demonstrate the issues that are discussed. First, this article argues that the concept of communicative rationality can be helpful in understanding how mutually trusting relationships between practitioners and researchers can be established at the beginning of a project. Second, it argues that the idea of taking a virtual stand on validity claims can be used during a project to engage a performative attitude and achieve mutual understanding with actors in the practice system. Third, this article argues that the concept of the virtual participant can explain how the interactive researcher can engage in performative action without becoming captive to the practice system. The concept of the virtual participant helps to enhance understanding of the complexity of the role of the interactive researcher.

We argue that municipal adult education (MAE) can be seen as a place for displaced and abnormal citizens to gain temporary stability, enabling their shaping into desirable subjects. Drawing on a poststructural discursive analysis, we analyze policy texts and interviews with teachers and students. Our analysis illustrates how two distinct but interrelated student subjectivities are shaped: the rootless, unmotivated, and irresponsible student; and the responsible, motivated, and goal-oriented student. The difference is that the latter of these subjectivities is positioned as desirable. MAE provides a temporary place in time, a heterotopia of deviation, allowing students to escape precarious employment. The heterotopia places the students in a positive utopian dream of the future. A utopia is not a real place, and what is to become of the students after finishing MAE is not determined; the students themselves should shape it. If they fail, in line with a neoliberal governmentality, it is their own fault.

The aim of this article is to contribute to an understanding of contemporary processes of negotiations concerning belonging and non-belonging to the Swedish social community. Taking on a theoretical approach on belonging inspired by Yuval-Davis and Jacobsen, the article analyses three individual stories of women who have migrated to Sweden. Out of this analysis, focusing on how these women claim their belonging to a Swedish social community at the same time as they in different ways are denied such belonging by others, we may conclude that although each of the stories told is unique and articulates an individual experience, there are striking similarities in how their claims of belonging, with its related implications for belonging, are not acknowledged by others. In a way, these individual stories tell us something about some of the crucial challenges regarding belonging in contemporary multi-ethnic Sweden, as well as Europe.

This chapter argues for the importance of understanding recognition of prior learning (RPL) through the critical social theories of Jurgen Habermas and Axel Honneth. Results from a research project exploring RPL for the accreditation of prior experiential learning in the healthcare sector in Sweden are used to develop the analysis. It is argued that RPL for accreditation could, by reflecting the results of Habermas’ theory of communicative action, be a process that strengthens social integration and solidarity and develops personal identity. RPL could encourage critical learning in the lifeworld of education through reflections on prior learning, experiences and knowledge gained in work. It is important that the results of the RPL process and assessment are clearly communicated. This would enable these experiences to be mobilised when students move on and use these learning experiences in new contexts. Honneth’s recognition theory can further help us understand what impact the recognition in RPL could have for an individual’s self-esteem development and how RPL processes can support self-realisation.

No abstract available.

This article focuses on a process of recognition of prior learning (RPL) in higher education. It is based on experiences from a project carried out in collaboration between the University of Lund, Linköping University and two trade unions in Sweden. The aim of the project was to find ways of recognising prior learning for accreditation of course credits at university level. In the project and its analysis, Habermas’ theory of communicative action was used as theoretical underpinning. During the project we carried out a thematic analysis based on interviews. The analysis suggested that the participants had a mystified view of higher education that RPL must be considered a learning process and that the participants’ prior learning can be characterised as practical wisdom. These themes guided the development of the project. In a retrospective analysis, language proficiency seemed to play a significant role for the outcome of the process. The conclusion suggests that a more fair and valid assessment of the participant’s prior learning could be accomplished by focusing on RPL as a process of mutual understanding. However, a critical appraisal of the process suggests that RPL for accreditation is problematic and could be seen as a colonisation of the lifeworld. This is an electronic version of an article published in: Fredrik Sandberg and Per Andersson, RPL for accreditation in higher education: as a process of mutual understanding or merely lifeworld colonisation?, 2010, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education is available online at informaworldTM: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2010.488793 Copyright: Taylor & Francis http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/default.asp