Building Social Capital: Steps towards a Learning Society. Occasional Papers Series: No. 11.

Autor/in	Schuller, Tom
Institution	Edinburgh Univ. (Scotland). Centre for Continuing Education.
Titel	Building Social Capital: Steps towards a Learning Society. Occasional Papers Series: No. 11.
Quelle	(1996), (20 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Adult Education; Adult Learning; Educational Demand; Educational Supply; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Human Capital; Humanistic Education; Humanitarianism; Lifelong Learning; Social Action; Social Capital; Social Values; United Kingdom (Scotland) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Adult; Adults; Education; Adult basic education; Adult training; Erwachsenenbildung; Adulte education; Bildungsanforderung; Bildungsnachfrage; Bildungsangebot; Ausland; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Humankapital; Humanistische Bildung; Life-long learning; Lebenslanges Lernen; Soziales Handeln; Sozialkapital; Sozialer Wert
Abstract	Although it is true that education is an investment, there are risks associated with relying too strongly on the metaphor of education as investment. The main problems with the investment metaphor are as follows: (1) it pushes aside the notion of education as a consumption good that people want for its own sake; (2) the human capital approach can cast a shadow over forms of learning unable to prove adequately that they are a profitable investment; and (3) the measures used for input and output in analyses of the relationship between education and economic performance are problematic. Education should be viewed not as an investment in human capital but rather as an investment in social capital. It may be argued that, rather than fostering a system of lifelong learning, the expansion of higher education (especially initial higher education) has merely concentrated resources on the initial phase of education at the expense of later opportunities, which is neither an effective nor a socially equitable way of allocating resources. To get closer to a learning society, the current preoccupation with the supply of education must be replaced with closer attention to the factors influencing the demand for education. (Contains 11 references.) (MN)
Anmerkungen	Centre for Continuing Education, University of Edinburgh, 11 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, Scotland (2 pounds).
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC