The Message or the Bottle? Community, Associationism and Adult Learning as “Part of the Process of Social Change”

Sharon Clancy

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-97208-4_3

Abstract

Raymond Williams argued that the “the impulse to adult education” was never solely focused on “remedying deficit, making up for inadequate educational resources in the wider society” (Williams, 1983, in McIlroy and Westwood (Eds), 1993, p. 257). Nor was it primarily a response to “meeting new needs of the society”. This chapter argues, as Williams did, that adult education has to be more than “the bottle with the message in it, bobbing on the tides and waves of history” (ibid, p. 255), springing urgently, instead, from the “the desire to make learning part of the process of social change itself (ibid, p. 257). Williams’ assertion suggests that Adult Education’s political purpose comes through the lens of community and associationism and their contribution to an ‘ethic of service’ and to social justice. Concepts such as ‘social mobility’ and ‘aspiration’ are politically freighted ideas which mask real knowledge dispossession and social precarity. This chapter explores the important role adult education can play in ‘left behind’ communities in the grip of decline, focusing on the role of residential colleges and also non-formal, family and community learning in engaging at community level with those who have no overt ‘voice’ in the political system. Finally, the chapter explores the role of adult education in consciousness raising and in the construction of ‘resources for a journey of hope’, examining how awareness of community history and labour struggles have provided continuity and resilience in times of escalating turbulence.

Highlights

The reality for many people in contemporary Britain is that we are living in increasingly precarious circumstances which are decoupled from an optimistic future, and do not provide spaces in which the complexity of modern economic life can be debated
Statistics from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (Annual Report, 2015) show that the proportion of people living in households with an income below the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) increased by nearly a third between 2008/09 and 2012/13
Families have seen the greatest increase in poverty, with at least 8.1 million parents and children living at an income level below that necessary to cover a minimum household budget, up by more than a third from 5.9 million in 2008/09

Summary

Introduction

There has never been a greater cleavage between the tone of our society, its manner and forms, and the gross realities. Social and economic inclusion has been reimagined in recent times in terms of social mobility and individual “success”, resulting in an emphasis on using higher education to remove young people from their communities of origin.

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Conclusion