THE LIFELONG LEARNING HYBRID - Policy, Institutions and Learners in Lifelong

Pepka Boyadjieva Valentinа Milenkova Galin Gornev Kristina Petkova Diana Nenkova

Just like mass-scale school education responded historically to the well-structured needs of the societies of early modernity, lifelong learning (LLL) reflects the uncertain and liquid character of late modernity and globalization. In a sense, LLL reflects the unprecedented dynamic aspects of late modem societies and the immanent uncertainty of their social structures and life trajectories. Under the conditions of global openness the LLL paradigm is being transmitted "cross-border" - with tensions, idiosyncrasies and hybridization - from its "homeland", i.e. the developed societies of late modernity, to the less developed ones.

An ambition of this monograph is to cast more light on the intriguing process of international LLL transplantation and hybridization. Being a good example in this respect Bulgaria is set in the center of our research interest. The analysis is based mainly on the empirical results from an international research project, which included social scientists from 13 European countries - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Scotland, and Slovenia.