Rethinking empowerment : postmodern appraisals of critical educational gerontology

Abstract

A key rationale in older adult education is critical educational gerontology [CEG]. CEG is concerned with the centrality of politics and powers in the way that late-life education works, with its ultimate goal being the empowerment of older persons to confront the social system with a view to changing it. However, the coming of „late‟ and „post‟ modern social realities means that CEG has entered a profound intellectual and conceptual crisis. Its foundations were constructed during a time of „modern‟ capitalism when social inequality was structured along strict class lines, and when the principal focus of ageing-related social policy consisted in bridging families‟ income before and after retirement. Since then industrial societies have become increasingly characterised by more flexible forms of work organisation, an increasing breaking down of the neo-corporatist relations between state and labour, and rising levels of cultural fragmentation. For some educators, the time has come to close the lid over CEG, accept its analytical and practical obsolescence, and embrace other more relevant rationales. On the basis that retirement is far from being a uniform experience, many argue that the key goal of late-life education is to aid older persons respond to a fast changing world due to technological development and changing values.