“The unbearable lightness of being” a post-industrial learner: Contemporary capitalism, education and critique

In his 1984 allegorical novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan<br/>Kundera explores existential questions around freedom and identity,<br/>meaning and purpose, in a period of upheaval in Soviet dominated<br/>Czechoslovakia. In this paper we draw on the rich symbolism in Kundera’s<br/>novel to bring into view upheavals in the social relations underpinning<br/>contemporary societies, and the tensions between freedom and com-<br/>mitment, lightness and weight that seem to characterise the nature of<br/>work in post-industrial societies. Our paper addresses three tasks.<br/>Theoretically, we take up the invitation offered by this Special Issue to<br/>re-engage with critical theory, and in our case, the Frankfurt School<br/>tradition, to develop a more situated critique of education and work in<br/>contemporary capitalism and society. Substantively, we use this more<br/>reflexive and situated approach to critical theory to examine the tensions<br/>in the OECD’s current education futures policy work, and specifically<br/>their turn to a set of humanistic concepts. Normatively, we critique the<br/>OECD’s futures policies, and propose a set of propositions that might<br/>guide education into the future, as a matter of social justice.