The Confessing Society: Foucault, Confession and Practices of Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning has become an increasingly important theme in contemporary society through which each citizen is encouraged to become a constant learner. Such narratives are often seen as positive and all-inclusive. In this book, practices of lifelong learning will be considered as practices of confession. Today, people are constantly encouraged to verbalize themselves to others, be it in TV shows, in newspapers, in family life or together with friends. In this book, the authors argue that society has become a confessing society by illustrating how confession operates in the practices of family involvement in school, in-service training, educational guidance, through coaching in the media, etc. Together, such practices shape and govern an active and responsible citizen. The authors, drawing on Foucault#xE2;#xAC;"s later work on confession and governmentality, carefully analyse how confession operates within practices of lifelong learning as a way to shape activated and responsible citizens. This book is international in its scope and the argument pursued is related to current debates regarding trans-national policy and to research discussions on education, lifelong learning and governance, and it will provoke lively debate amongst educational practitioners, academics, postgraduate and research students in education and lifelong learning in Europe, North America and Australasia.