Education in the Liquid-Modern Setting

Abstract

The powerful flow from solid modernity to liquid modernity – presaged by and presaging further social changes hitherto unknown in scope and speed – is creating new and unprecedented conditions in which individuals must pursue their fragmentary goals. Liquid-modern culture is the here-and-now and its heady temporality demands adaptability and flexibility whilst rendering them enticing and even exciting. The world is full of seductive and promising chances but, like the will o' the wisp, its promises of empowerment are fleeting. Grasp them and they are gone, leaving only danger and disempowerment under foot. Education has, in the past, been able to adjust itself to changing circumstances and so provide some foundation; but the present change is not like past changes and the art of living in a world over-saturated with information has yet to be learned. This article sets out to capture the uncertainty, even if only momentarily, of liquid-modern culture to give some purchase to the questions education and educationalists must ask of it.