(Selbst-)Optimierung in der Erwachsenenbildung

Bildungsfragen im Horizont des Lebenslangen Lernens

Abstract

This article examines the use of the terms “optimization” and “self-optimization” in the sub-discipline of adult education. Even if “optimization” and self-optimization” are not genuinely categories of adult education science, discursive uses can be observed that refer primarily to an affirmative signification in educational economics. A special feature is the discourse of self-optimization, within which the concept of self-optimization has become a cipher of critical confrontation with the appropriations of the economics of education. Through the discourse of self-optimization, references to critical educational thinking are negotiated – more or less openly – which need to be explicated and strengthened through categorical confrontations. Therefore, this article asks what function the discourses of (self-)optimization take on and to what extent do they close off or open up questions about education within adult education studies debates? The leitmotif of the article is to trace the potential of renewal of the educational discussion within adult education in the discourses on self-optimization.