Beyond post-modernism: From throwing up our hands to throwing down the gauntlet

Created in Wordle by me

Finger and Asun talk about the post-modern world in which we live.  They refer to it as a juncture of sorts.  Along the development road, we have left our modernist way of travel and we are reflecting upon our attempts to bring the lesser-developed along for the ride with a critical eye.  It’s through this reflection that we are coming to realize that trying to bring others into the capitalist fold, relying solely on capitalist forces to do so, has been an abysmal failure. What have we learned from the modernization experiment?  Capitalist forces serve the hegemony of the dominant class, the corporate class.  The inevitable facelessness of multi-nationalism has left a wake of ecological degradation and destruction, societal inequity and despair, and a convoluted and complex global political economy that more resembles a house of cards than a solid base for growth and prosperity.  It would seem that the current state of affairs in the world bears out Finger and Asun’s arguments.  And it’s this last conclusion, the tremulous house of cards on the brink of collapse, which is a key hangover feature that leads us into the post-modern era.  It’s also the most troubling characteristic and the single point of attack for adult education, Finger and Asun assert, if the new adult education is to become a force of reason and change in the new global political economy. 

Now, Finger and Asun don’t spend too much time focusing on the characteristics of the post-modern era that make it unique to any other in our history.  Much of the scholarly writing on this has been largely speculative up until this point in time and, although much has been written about it in recent years, I would suspect that it is largely still speculative and, I would argue, reactive.  So, after some encouragement from one of my classmates in response to post in her seminar discussion (thanks Colleen), I’ll attempt to provide my perspective here.

When I read about post-modernism and Finger and Asun's description of it as "intellectual incoherence" and a "fragmentation of social and individual life", I immediately thought of adult education as a natural response.  I think that at its core, adult education seeks to clarify concepts through social interaction.  I think that what we are seeing in the technological realm is a natural evolution of post-modernism, perhaps a post-post-modernism.  The rise of social media and the efforts made to bring people together on a global scale through this medium is evidence of this evolution.  I think that the Occupy movement is an example of this evolution.  I would also argue that much of the protests in the middle east were examples of this evolution as well. 

I recently attended some training on eLearning.  Well, it was billed as eLearning but the trainer, a true androgogue (and I mean that in the most sincere and positive way), spent the time allowing us to explore technology that was free or virtually free via the World Wide Web.  Each site that we visited, each application that we downloaded and explored was accompanied with the questions “How do you think this would be of use to you and work that you do within the social services?”, and “How do you think this would be of use to those that you serve?”  Now, I won’t suggest that each application or website was revolutionary for social service delivery or our clients, but most were at the very least helpful if not extraordinary (evident by the number of times that my jaw dropped and I muttered, “Coooooool”).  But, what struck me as we discussed the merits and limitations of what we were tinkering with was how much we have advanced in the past 15 years in terms of our relationship with technology and its role in how we relate to each other and our world.  So, while the post-modern era is delocalized, fragmented, complex, and contradictory with an eroded body politic, it is not necessarily going to result in a global throwing-up of hands in the air, a collective sigh of resignation and an apathetic chorus of, “Well, what can you do?”  It may just be that the way we relate, gather, and educate to liberate is changing and the technology that many say serves to isolate us will in fact bring us together and serve to facilitate our efforts to “learn our way out”.

If you want a snapshot of the growth and enormity social media, check out this video.  It's definitely got a corporate feel and agenda, but I think that you can imagine the implication for adult education.