The misuses of sustainability: adult education, citizenship and the dead hand of neoliberalism

‘‘Sustainability’’ has a captivating but disingenuous simplicity: its meanings are complex, and have political and policy significance. Exploring the application of the term to adult education, this paper argues that a particular discourse of ‘‘sustainability’’ has become a common-sense, short-circuiting critical analysis and understanding of policy options. This ‘‘business discourse’’ of sustainability, strongly influenced by neoliberal ideas, encourages the presumption that educational programmes and movements which have died out were unsustainable, bound to fail, and even responsible – having failed to adapt – for their own demise. Potentially valuable experience is thus excluded from the educational policy canon. The author uses three cases from 20th-century adult education, namely (1) English liberal adult education; (2) ‘‘mass education’’, also known as community development, in the British colonies; and (3) UNESCO’s Fundamental Education, to challenge this presumption. He demonstrates for each case how a business discourse has implied their ‘‘unsustainability’’, but that the reality was more complex and involved external political intervention

The Life and Work of Joel Barkan - An Introduction

Joel Barkan was an important figure in Africanist political science and one of the world’s leading experts on East Africa. He died suddenly in January 2014 while on holiday in Mexico, aged seventy-two. At the time, he was still involved in myriad projects both academic and policy oriented, his energies undimmed. In addition to contributing to the literature on African politics, Barkan was a passionate friend of Africa, inspiring students on all sides of the Atlantic to study the continent. Following his death, a headline in the best selling Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Nation, read “In Memory of Joel Barkan: A Scholar Who Believed in Kenya’s Greatness.” This ASR Forum explores the lasting legacy of his wide-ranging work on a number of countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda, and a broad range of political institutions and phenomena. The articles contained in this forum demonstrate the continued significance of Barkan’s work and its important implications for how we study elections, legislatures and development around the world, not just in Africa

The Life and Work of Joel Barkan - An Introduction

Joel Barkan was an important figure in Africanist political science and one of the world’s leading experts on East Africa. He died suddenly in January 2014 while on holiday in Mexico, aged seventy-two. At the time, he was still involved in myriad projects both academic and policy oriented, his energies undimmed. In addition to contributing to the literature on African politics, Barkan was a passionate friend of Africa, inspiring students on all sides of the Atlantic to study the continent. Following his death, a headline in the best selling Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Nation, read “In Memory of Joel Barkan: A Scholar Who Believed in Kenya’s Greatness.” This ASR Forum explores the lasting legacy of his wide-ranging work on a number of countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda, and a broad range of political institutions and phenomena. The articles contained in this forum demonstrate the continued significance of Barkan’s work and its important implications for how we study elections, legislatures and development around the world, not just in Africa