lcc liberal arts studies / 2010 volume iii - LCC International University

ALEKSANDRA ÐVEC, MARGARITA PAVLOVIÈ / LIFELONG LEARNING
In brief, the key messages incorporated in the concept of LLL are the timing
for learning as well as the activities constituting the process of learning. LLL calls
strong attention to the fact that learning occurs in all aspects of people's lives
through day-to-day activities. The traditional “syllabus acquisition” is not able to
meet the changing needs of the changing economy and society, and the traditional
schooling system is now complemented by a developing adult education system.
However, institutionalized education is only a small part of the complex learning
processes because, again, the timing and activities of LLL emphasize its “all the
time”, “everywhere”, “in all possible ways” dimensions.
LLL for Homo discens is considered to be a norm rather than a special,
exceptional activity. Inability to update knowledge and skills, especially in response
to the changing demands of the globalized world, can make individuals and
organizations lose their competitiveness in the market and so-called “membership”
in the Homo discens society quickly, and sometimes irreversibly. Therefore,
learning life-wide and lifelong is exactly what the globalized society of Homo
discens requires from all its members.
Globalization: “Unification of Everything” vs. “Individualization of Everyone”
As promptly pointed out by Jarvis (2007), the idea and concept of LLL was brought
to the public attention at the same time as the processes these days unified under
globalization term emerged. Around the same time, economists and politicians
began to call public attention to the fact that the capitalistic principle of exchange
and high competition has become a firm foundation for the renewed global
economy. In order to survive and, ideally, to prosper, organizations (and their
members) had to change their business strategies and relocate financial and
human capital as well as production to the countries or areas with the cheaper labor
and lower taxes, heavily invest into the development of the knowledge capital and
innovation, develop new markets and keep the old ones for selling their produced
goods and services, and, finally, attempt to keep what they have invented and
developed. The world changed rapidly, and the term globalization came into secular
language to describe “the processes through which sovereign national states are
criss-crossed and undermined by transnational actors with varying prospects of
power, orientation, identities and networks” (Beck, 2000; in Jarvis, 2007, p. 3).
These processes covered economic, political, social and cultural changes
which include but are not limited to the increased mobility of different types of
capital, growing interconnectedness of individuals, groups, organizations,
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