Intersecting work and learning: assembling advanced liberal regimes of governing workers in Australia

Much had been written over the past few years on the intersections of work and learning. This article suggests that the analysis of the intersections of work and learning can benefit greatly from understanding the ways in which governing workers as individuals and populations has changed in Western...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in continuing education 2008-11, Vol.30 (3), p.199-213
Main Author: Reich, Ann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Australia
Continuing Education
Economic Change
Education Work Relationship
Educational policy
Educational Principles
Employees
Employment
Foreign Countries
Government role
Governmentality
Industry
Labor Force Development
Labour education
Labour relations
Learning
Liberalism
Lifelong Learning
Neoliberalism
neoliberalisms and advanced liberalism
Political Attitudes
Politics
Politics of education
Reform
Skilled labour
Social Change
Training
Vocational Education
Vocational education and training
work and learning
Work Environment
worker identities
Workplace learning
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Much had been written over the past few years on the intersections of work and learning. This article suggests that the analysis of the intersections of work and learning can benefit greatly from understanding the ways in which governing workers as individuals and populations has changed in Western liberal democracies in the latter part of the twentieth century. Through the use of an analytics of government perspective based on the later governmentality work of Foucault and others, the article analyses the shifts in ways of governing paid workers through the programmes of reforms in industry, industrial relations and vocational education and training in Australia. These shifts can be understood, it is suggested, as shifts in the mentalities of governing - from social liberal regimes to advanced liberal regimes of government. The article foregrounds the assembling of a new subjectivity and character of the post-industrial paid worker - the 'worker as learner' as the lifelong learner who is continually required to reskill to maintain paid work in economic life in order to sustain desirable and normal lifestyles. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for researching work and learning.
ISSN:0158-037X
1470-126X
DOI:10.1080/01580370802439912