Education permanente in post-war France, 1945–1960: Circulatory regimes and policy repertoires

Abstract The literature regarding the social organisation of ‘adult’ learning opportunities throughout the life course postulates different significations of policy concepts such as ‘lifelong education’, ‘permanent education’, ‘recurrent education’, and ‘lifelong learning’ in the 1970s. This paper examines policy formation processes in France during the 1950s when the development of éducation permanente was characterised by often-conflicting policy repertoires articulating arguments for redistributing opportunities to participate in organised (adult) learning throughout life. In the post-war context of rapid economic growth and technological change, it focuses on the policy repertoires articulated by the state, civil society organisations, and markets regarding individual and collective opportunities to continue to acquire knowledge, skills and sensitivities throughout life. Based upon a critical rereading of primary and secondary published texts, the analysis suggests that éducation permanente constituted a social field of problematic relationships between individual and collective interests regarding the acquisition of knowledge, skills and sensitivities. This constituted the dialectic between economic/vocational, technical reconversion practices in relation to social, cultural, and personal regeneration practices in a rapidly changing capitalist society. The conclusions identify a number of issues calling for further comparative historical research into often-conflicting policy repertoires that propagated policies to promote ‘long lives of learning’.