We are living in an era characterized by intense global mobility of people, artefacts, and ideas. During the last few years, with the current refuge situation, many adult educators in the Nordic countries have experienced how global interconnectedness affects their daily practices. Global migration, in general, triggers challenges and opens up new opportunities for adult learning. In sharp contrast to forced migration stands the privilege of the type of travel enjoyed by many people living in the Nordic countries. Travel related to recreation, work, or education is also a key element in relation to adult learning in contemporary society, and this raises questions about access, power relations, and the formation of transnational communities.  Travel concerns not only people, however: policies and educational and organizational ideas also travel across the world.  Social movements, once so central to the Nordic tradition of popular education, tend to stretch beyond national borders.

The multifaceted theme of global mobility, which we address at this 7^th biannual Nordic conference on adult education and learning, reframes the classical question of whether there is such thing as a Nordic model of adult education and prompts us to ask how well Nordic adult education has adapted to our age of global mobility?  What processes of transformation, reinvention, and reframing are going on, in practice as well as in theory? Contributions relating adult education to various frames of reference are welcome. As in the previous conference, one session strand is dedicated to popular education and non-formal adult education.

SAVE THE DATE!

Adult education in the age of global mobility

7th Nordic Conference on Adult Education and Learning 3–5 May 2017

Venue: School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University, Sweden

Organizers:     Encell – National centre for lifelong learning at Jönköping University

Mimer – the Swedish network for research on popular education at Linköping University

Contact:         Cecilia Bjursell, Jönköping University, [email protected]

                     Henrik Nordvall, Linköping University, [email protected]

Submission of abstract: 7 January 2017. Abstracts should be sent to [email protected]

More information will be available soon at www.liu.se/mimer/norden .

Henrik Nordvall (Ph. D., Associate Professor)
Director of Mimer – The Swedish Network for Research on Popular Education
Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning (IBL)
Linköping University
Sweden