全球風險、知識與終身學習

Global Risk, Knowledge and Lifelong Learning

本文旨在論述全球風險社會中，與終身學習研究相關之廣泛且複雜的問題。本文分為四個部分。首先，論述國際社會間生產和服務快速交換、資訊科技精進發展和媒介文化變動流竄等現象，藉以剖析全球化內涵。相較之，全球性的去中心化現象，展現在政治分離主義、新社會運動等，它們不僅催化新的在地性文化認同，同時，導致國族國家勢力退縮。在第二部分，援引UlrichBeck風險理論，本文論述風險相關之政治、經濟和文化條件。在風險社會中，知識是細瑣零散、情境依存的，因此，鼓勵透過次政治來學習界定風險，並找尋出路。第三部分是本文中心議題，分析如何創發終身學習實踐，以便民眾在開放、多變和無法預測的世界中求生存。因此，今後成人教育或終身學習的重要角色是營造多樣化學習社群，讓民眾終身依存團體學習，以發展認知和美學反思能力。最後，在全球化、後現代思潮喧嘩的時代，本文建議國家制訂政策時，應策略性協助終身學習事業發展。

In this article, I display the breadth, depth, and complexity of issues surrounding the study of lifelong learning within a context of global risk society. This paper is structured into four sections. In the first section, globalization is depicted as a set of phenomena that has characterized into the rapid development of information technology, the growth of production and service exchange, and huge transfers of money and media cultures around the world. By contrast, global decentralization is tantamount to separatist movements and new social moments that have generated new localized identities and resulted in the declining role of nation state. In the second section, Ulrich Beck’s notion of risk that refers a particular set of social, economic, political and cultural conditions is depicted. In a risk society, the knowledge is fragile and contextual; therefore the sub-politics of risk definition is encouraged in order to learn the way out. This takes to the core question about how to reinvent the practice of lifelong learning for people to cope to survive in a very complex, open and unpredictable world. Therefore, adult education in general, and lifelong learning in particular, has an increasing role to play in building multiple communities for people to affiliate with and develop their cognitive and aesthetic reflexivity through their lives. In the final section, I highlight that the government has a role to play in strategically articulating the policy of lifelong learning in a world inexorably undergoing process of globalization associated with postmodern.