Vulnerability in European Lifelong Learning Policies 1992–2018: Seeing Young People as a Problem to Be Fixed?

Abstract

Adopting a dynamic view of vulnerability and using a critical discourse analysis based on a corpus of 68 European documents (25 years) on lifelong learning, this chapter explores the conceptual underpinnings of how lifelong learning has addressed the challenges of vulnerability among young people. The results show that youth, especially those in vulnerable situations, have been constructed primarily as a category that is, or should be, economically active and in need of lifelong learning to develop their skills in the labour market. Other visions implicit in lifelong learning (e.g., citizenship, social participation) have been marginalised. Thus, human capital perspectives dominate European lifelong learning policies, underpinning a narrow vision that misunderstands the causes of vulnerability and generates incomplete policy objectives for socially excluded youth.