The Learning Society and the European Union: A Critical Assessment of Supranational Education Policy Formation

Abstract

Globalisation's relationship with education and training is a complicated one. This paper explores the impact upon education and training of the European Union, whose policies in this field have developed rapidly over the past two decades. It provides a detailed overview of policy-making within the EU, and shows how the Commission reached the conclusion that far-reaching changes are needed in the way that learning is promoted and managed within the Union—a radical conclusion exemplified in the Commission's commitment to the ideal of a `learning society'. Yet there are good reasons for skepticism about the extent to which that ideal can in practice be promoted through the current policies and programmes of the EU. The paper concludes by suggesting that the Commission's stance is driven as much by internal political and institutional dynamics as by its interest in the ideal of a learning society.