“The unbearable lightness of being” a post-industrial learner: Contemporary capitalism, education and critique
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: In his 1984 allegorical novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera explores existential questions around freedom and identity, meaning and purpose, in a period of upheaval in Soviet dominated Czechoslovakia. In this paper we draw on the rich symbolism in Kundera’s novel to bring into view upheavals in the social relations underpinning contemporary societies, and the tensions between freedom and commitment, lightness and weight that seem to characterise the nature of work in post-industrial societies. Our paper addresses three tasks. Theoretically, we take up the invitation offered by this Special Issue to re-engage with critical theory, and in our case, the Frankfurt School tradition, to develop a more situated critique of education and work in contemporary capitalism and society. Substantively, we use this more reflexive and situated approach to critical theory to examine the tensions in the OECD’s current education futures policy work, and specifically their turn to a set of humanistic concepts. Normatively, we critique the OECD’s futures policies, and propose a set of propositions that might guide education into the future, as a matter of social justice.
Authors: Susan L. Robertson, Jason Beech
Institutions: University of Manchester, The University of Melbourne
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Award: G1389470211
OpenAlex ID: W4405799302