Critiques of capitalism have constituted the backbone of political economies addressing living, working, and learning conditions in a variety of forms of capitalism. This paper explores different approaches to representations of the future of (adult) education in capitalist Europe. It examines the 1960s and 1970s as a period when rapid technological change was addressed in studies of the future in Europe by proponents of post-industrial society, New Left public intellectuals, professional futurologists, and critics of late capitalism, envisaged quite different futures for both society and organised adult learning. Attention is subsequently focused on the pan-European project Educating Man for the 21st Century during the early 1970s which envisaged the future as ‘neo-industrial/neo-capitalist society’ in the year 2000. In conclusion, the paper offers a critical account of early encounters with neoliberal politics during the 1970s and early 1980s, particularly the cultural materialist work of Raymond Williams.

Looking forward backwards: Varieties of capitalisms, alternative futures, and learning landscapes

Guidance and Career Choice

Possible Futures of European Education.- 1. On General Problems of Social Forecasts.- 2. Forecasts of Educational Expenditures in Fourteen European Countries and the United States.- 3. A Systems Prognostication of the European Social System.- 4. On a Theory of Education.- 5. Trends in the System's Development.- 6. Summary.- How Should the Future be Studied?.- 1. Necessity of studying the future, but reservations with regard to long-range forecasting.- 2. Outstanding socio-economic trends today.- 3. All planning is based on a system of values.- 4. Necessity of modifying the methods of planning.- 5. The international system.- Social and Cultural Futures in Western Europe a Framework for Analysis.- 1. Social Change or Continuity - Problems in Social and Cultural Futures.- 2. A sociological framework for Hypothetical Futures.- 3. The dynamics of social Change and Discontinuity.- 4. Emerging European Futures - The Basic Qualitative Dilemma.- Biographical Notes.

Barry J. Hake

Papers

Possible futures of European education : numerical and system's forecasts