Abstract
Two key discourses of our time, lifelong learning and the fourth industrial revolution, have been inextricably linked to offer a compelling narrative of the coupling of education models and technological change to enable individual empowerment, social inclusion, and a shared prosperity. Taking a broadly interdisciplinary approach, we identify the development and key constituents of each concept and examine how they have been brought together. We identify fundamental flaws and difficulties with the concepts and their application, but also indicate how the fourth industrial revolution can provide an impetus for thinking about lifelong learning in new ways that transcend the individual employment-focused conceptualizations that have dominated in recent times. Finally, we offer a discussion about the nature of a progressive conceptualization of lifelong learning which might respond in a more authentic and realistic way to contemporary changes in the nature of work, life, social, and economic activity and indeed to more fundamental issues for humanity.
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Acknowledgments
Our sincere thanks to Miriam Zukas and the anonymous referees for their very helpful comments on an earlier version of this chapter. We are also grateful to our fellow team members in a major comparative research program funded by the Singapore government: see https://digitalfuturesofwork.com/.
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James, D., Sadik, S., Brown, P. (2022). Rethinking Lifelong Learning in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. In: Evans, K., Lee, W.O., Markowitsch, J., Zukas, M. (eds) Third International Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67930-9_49-1
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