Adult Education between Emancipation and Control

This chapter presents some examples of the ambivalent approaches and of the different kinds of strategies the participants develop when involved in adult education. It briefly describes a theoretical approach to understanding the identity problems that adults face in a modern society. The chapter discusses the limits and possibilities for adult education to be part of an emancipatory project for the subjects involved – and also for developing necessary qualifications in a modernised society. The mixed attitudes towards adult education are not just produced by the outward elements of economic power and control that compel our research subjects to participate in adult education. The broader social and economic conditions these participants are facing have consequences for their very identities. For many of the participants in adult education, the aim of their efforts is so vague and far away that their participation appears meaningless when they come to think about it more deeply, as often happens during the interviews