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Lifelong learning, policy and desireHeather Lynch aa Institute of Education , University of Stirling , Stirling, UKPublished online: 10 Nov 2008.

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British Journal of Sociology of EducationVol. 29, No. 6, November 2008, 677–689

ISSN 0142-5692 print/ISSN 1465-3346 online© 2008 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/01425690802423353http://www.informaworld.com

Lifelong learning, policy and desire

Heather Lynch*

Institute of Education, University of Stirling, Stirling, UKTaylor and FrancisCBSE_A_342503.sgm(Received 21 June 2007; final version received 30 May 2008)10.1080/01425690802423353British Journal of Sociology of Education0142-5692 (print)/1465-3346 (online)Original Article2008Taylor & Francis296000000November 2008HeatherLynchheather.lynch@stir.ac.uk

Recent lifelong learning policies have been criticised for creating an illusion of freedomwhilst simultaneously reducing choice. The concept of desire permits engagement withthe conscious and unconscious drives that underpin individual decision-making, whichdirect the life course. Utilising the ideas of Hume and Spinoza, the present articlearticulates the interrelated nature of desire and learning. Evidence is drawn fromLearning Lives, a Teaching and Learning Research Programme-funded research projectthat uses the life history method to explore themes of agency, identity and learningacross the life course. Boltanski and Thevenot’s sociology of critical capacity is used asa heuristic tool that illuminates the mechanics of desire as described by eightcontributors. Their stories provide a basis from which to critique policies for lifelonglearning that appear limited in relation to the multiple desires that drive their life choices.

Keywords: affect; agency; identity; life history; embodiment; motivation

Introduction

There is an ever-increasing burden of expectation on formal education to steer the lifecourse of individuals toward increased economic productivity. Recent UK Governmentstrategies (HM Treasury 2006; Scottish Executive 2003; Scottish Government 2007)promote lifelong learning almost exclusively as a mechanism to equip individuals with theskills to remain employable in an ever-changing job market. In Scotland, lifelong learning‘will be one of the central planks (of a) developing new economic approach’ (ScottishGovernment 2007, 3). These documents invite us to believe that ‘productivity growth isnearly everything’ (Scottish Government 2007, 11) and use this to justify an unproblem-atic relationship between learning and the economy. The learner is made stakeholder inthis drive for economic growth, to the extent that they are even given an explicit list oftasks (Scottish Government 2007, 46). The negative effects of this productivity imperativehave been widely discussed by scholars, who argue that the rhetorical focus of deficiencyhas shifted from structures to individuals (Fairclough 2000; Furedi 2004; Davis andBansel 2007). Bansel (2007) argues that neoliberal governments have embraced an idea of‘governing without governing’ (Bansel 2007, 285, citing Rose 1999) where an illusion offreedom is created through the perception of choice. Where governing systems are lessobvious, Davis and Bansel suggest this produces ‘docile subjects who are tightly governedand yet define themselves as free’ (2007, 249). Amidst such powerful yet apparentlyinvisible governance there is a need to discern the interests and drives of individuals ifpolicy is to reflect these. Desire is a concept useful in this endeavour as it exposes the

*Email: heather.lynch@stir.ac.uk

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multiple influencing factors through which individuals direct their lives. Desire thereforelinks with the concept of agency but also challenges some of its limitations.

Government indicates the need to create desire where there ‘is too little appetite forlearning’ (HM Treasury 2006, 2). The analysis of individual life stories permits an explora-tion of desire as an operational mechanism that provides insight into how and why individ-uals create or reject opportunities for learning and change in their lives. This contributes toan understanding of agency that goes beyond Archer’s (2003) ‘internal conversation’, whichis disconnected from context, and also Bourdieu’s (1993) ‘habitus’, which although depen-dent on context is argued to be overly determined.

The life history method affords an understanding of the desires of individuals as it ‘aimsat catching individual, personal and sensuous experience without losing insights into thehistorical dynamics defining it’ (Weber 1999, 9). It is well suited to understanding the oper-ations of desire as contributors provide a holistic account of their life that enables us tounderstand how they ‘give cohesion to their lives’ (Antikainan et al. 1996, 5) and take ‘seri-ously the justifications provided by people of their own actions’ (Wagner 1999, 364). Alheit(1995) suggests that significant learning can always be linked to the physical and imaginedcontexts of the lives of individuals. An analysis of life stories grounded in the concept ofdesire implicates the significance of embodied and at times unconscious processes, whichinstigate the new understandings and awareness that we might call learning.

The evidence base for this discussion comes from Learning Lives, a research project thatexplores concepts of agency, identity and learning using life history and life-course inter-views. The present article draws on a sample of 40 people who were interviewed over aperiod of three years. The sample spans an age range of 25–63 years and includes peoplewith different social, cultural and economic experience. The Learning Lives stories enableus to see how life events reframe value contexts and have the capacity to alter the constitu-tion of desire while formal learning processes show little effect (Lynch and Field 2007).This evidence displaces formal learning from the positioning of policy-makers, who seeeducation as the central means of addressing economic growth and social exclusion (Byrne2005; Coffield 1999; Bansel 2007), to one strand of many which entwine lived experience.

Following an initial discussion of desire, the paper will focus on an exploration of whereand how desire is realised in contributors’. This section entitled ‘Mapping desire’ usesBoltanski and Thevenot’s sociology of critical capacity as a heuristic tool that reveals thevalue contexts in which people make decisions. This overview or map generates a set ofcommonalities that illuminate the different ways in which desire operates in individual livesto comprise a ‘Machinery of desire’. Desire is invoked as a mechanism whose mobility/ornot is fuelled by but not determined by all aspects of context. It is revealed through thesediscussions as an embodied mechanism that drives individuals to direct their lives and sorelates to capacity for agency, which is discussed in the final section.

Desire

Desire permits awareness of the elements that drive individuals to make both conscious andunconscious choices. It is an elusive concept not easily contained by words, evident in thework of the many philosophers who have addressed desire as fundamental to the humancondition. According to Hume, ‘a passion is an original existence’ (2006, 266). Hegel (Stern2002) and Lacan (1989) construct a negative view of desire where it is seen as the drive tofill an absence that ceases once filled. Spinoza (1996) and Deleuze and Guattari (1987)conceptualise desire as a positive driving force that moves forward. O’Shea defines thisunderstanding of desire as ‘… the means by which we affirm ourselves, by increasing our

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capacity and ability to be affected by the world’ (2002, 930). Desire is about ‘affect’, andas such embraces, reason, emotion and embodiment.

David Hume’s exploration of ‘the passions’ is particularly relevant as he sought tounderstand the world based on the empirical evidence of observation. Unlike his predeces-sors who took a negative view of desire as a wayward force to be controlled, he recognisedthat desire is not restricted to violent passion (Hume 2006) but as a calm almost impercep-tible driving force often mistaken for reason. This is useful to discussion of the life storiesas the narrators rarely describe burning passion as a directing force in their lives. Insteadthey feel a pull in one direction or another. Hume (Norten 1993) developed an affirmativeview of desire; he defines desire as ‘a belief system with an objective’ (Norten 1993, 241).In doing so, he creates a link with values. He describes desire as a secondary impression(Hume 2006); that is to say, an embodied response to a ‘primary impression’ that has adirect sensory origin. Desire therefore breaks down the mind/sense binary. The intersectionof what is felt and what is believed was expressed frequently during the life stories in tellingof decision-making processes. Within this process of decision-making, desire was revealedas a productive mechanism – and what I call the ‘machinery of desire’ becomes most visi-ble. Before this machinery can be understood, desire must be located across the life.

Boltanski and Thevenot’s sociology of critical capacity is a conceptual tool that allows usto discern the values that underpin the individual desires steering decision-making processes.Their work is particularly useful here as it is an attempt to challenge the policy spatialisomorphism as, while policy acknowledges plurality, they argue that it does so an assumedsingular plane of experience. Their differentiated and multiple accounts recognise the diver-sity of physical, social and emotional locations from which individuals seek to progress.

Discerning desire

Boltanski and Thevenot’s seminal work ‘De la Justification Les économies de la grandeur’(1991) seeks to map the differing contexts in which decisions are made. In this attempt tomove beyond critical sociology, which they suggest is ‘unable to understand the criticaloperations undertaken by the actors’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1991, 364), they identify apossible but not exhaustive six orders in which belief systems operate and the justificationsfor choices and actions are made. These can be seen in Figure 1.Figure 1. Orders of worth. Adapted from Boltanski and Thevenot, 1991.

Domestic family, community and tradition

Civic public benefit, common will, the good of all and equality

Inspired personal growth, creativity and spontaneity

Market material wealth, competitiveness and short term gain

Industry productivity, efficiency, functionality

Opinion recognition, fame, celebrity status

Figure 1. Orders of worth. Adapted from Boltanski and Thevenot, 1991.

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According to Boltanski and Thevenot, individuals align with the areas outlined in differ-ent situations to make decisions – and beyond this to develop a general code of conduct thatenables them to act upon the conflicting interests present in the course of everyday life. Thisconceptual framework was developed in order to understand conflict resolution. The storiesfrom Learning Lives contributors are not the result of conflict, but the process of reflectionresults in a similar process of justification. The method of life history mobilises a ‘criticalmoment’ where there is ‘distance from the present and (a) turn backwards towards the past’(Boltanski and Thevenot 1999, 360). Within the act of telling there is ‘an imperative of justi-fication’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1999, 360), where individuals are compelled to makesense of the life story they narrate. Boltanski and Thevenot’s framework places the individ-ual and their story at the centre (Wagner 1999), moving away from:

… the perennial problem of sociology of being torn between a psychologism of action on onehand, and a grand historicism on the other. (Wagner 1999, 346)

When accounts of decision-making across the life course are mapped onto Boltanski andThevenot’s framework, some clear patterns emerge that illuminate the passions of individ-uals and the significant objects, relationships and events that affect these.

Mapping desire: a geography of values

The life stories display a set of patterns that link individual’s perceived choices within setsof circumstances to a personal value context. The stories reveal strands of experience, deci-sions and responses that move in a particular direction, indicating an over-riding location ofbelief that is stated in most cases both consciously and unconsciously. Hume articulates thestrong link between belief and passion where ‘a belief is almost absolutely requisite to theexciting of our passions’ (2006, 82). The systems of belief and evaluation that life storiesdescribe could be seen as insights into trajectories of desire. Three distinct patterns that areexperienced across the life course at different times emerged.

Constancy

Sheelagh Edwards’ story is one of constant movement. The eldest child in an impoverishedfamily, she learned resilience and independence in childhood. Her father achieved economicsuccess abroad, providing a wealthy lifestyle and educational opportunities for Sheelagh;however, her values are not rooted in this yearn for material wealth. Her narrative desire isone of self-expression. Now in her sixties she articulates this clearly, her main interestsbeing meditation and creative writing. While she found her job as a teacher interesting, ulti-mately the constraints of work obstructed her desire for expression so she welcomed earlyretirement in her mid-fifties and has subsequently focused on self-discovery. She values the‘creativity, non-conformity and emotion’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1999, 368) associatedwith the order of the inspired.

The context for Willie Cotter’s narrative is one of poverty and childhood abuse. Hisstory suggests that a desire for family stability underpinned many of his decisions. His sondied in childhood, and Willie believes neither of his two daughters capable of providinglonged-for grandchildren. He appears to value the ‘personal dependencies’ (Boltanski andThevenot 1999, 370) associated with the domestic order. All of the many courses andleisure pursuits that he has undertaken appear distractions from his frustration of unfulfilleddesire for family stability and extension.

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Poverty and abandonment are key features of Fraser’s youth. His aggressive behaviourand rejection of school led to criminality and incarceration. Fraser reflected a yearning fora girlfriend and stable relationships. In recognition that his lifestyle prohibited this, hesought change. Martial arts practice and a youth training scheme were experiences throughwhich he met his current partner of nearly 20 years. Redundancy then forced him to makesignificant decisions. With support from his wife and her family he undertook a furthereducation course in social care. His aptitude for study during this allowed him to see a socialwork degree as an achievable goal. However, he envisaged the costs of this to his familyand decided to put this on hold. With his current experience and qualifications he couldmove to a promoted post in another organisation. As Fraser likes his life he shows no wishfor change. His focus is quality time with his family. From youth he has sought the intimacyand ‘trust’ aligned with the domestic order (Boltanski and Thevenot 1999, 368) and,although his external situation has altered remarkably, his value for family has remainedconstant.

Shifting desire

Helena Johnstone had in her own words ‘a privileged upbringing’. Her professional parentsprovided education in a Quaker school, where she learned of her responsibility towardsthose with less. The path of civic duty underlines her career choices where she undertookboth paid and voluntary employment in the field of community development. Her greatestcommitment, described in one interview, was voluntary work with asylum seekers. Shemoved location and undertook further training in order to develop her skills in order that sheimprove her capacity to contribute to the ‘collective interest’ associated with the civic order(Boltanski and Thevenot 1999, 368). During the course of the interviews Helena becamepregnant and this affected her values. She gave up voluntary work and anticipated workingpart-time in future. The justification of her life plan shifted from the civic to the domestic.Now she is moved more by the thought of her child than of solidarity with asylum seekers.Her previously described bonds to the global community have been replaced by familybonds. This is a significant shift of interest from the civic world, which is defined as ‘liber-ate(d) from relations of personal dependence’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1991, 252).

Rosie came from an affluent background where education and work were valued. Whilenot an A-grade student, she worked hard to achieve. Her farm upbringing made her awareof the physical outcomes of her labour. When she failed part of an examination in universityshe chastised herself severely for not working hard enough and ensured that it did nothappen again; she described this failure as a betrayal of herself. Conversations with Rosiesuggest that she greatly values getting the best result, working through issues and arrivingat an outcome. Although committed to the ethos of her employer, she initially talked mostlyof the quality of her work and of her ability to do her job well. She appeared more focusedon ‘professional competence’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1999, 368) than on civic duty,which in her chosen vocation may have been important. Such value of productivity did notapply only to her but also to those she managed. She described their worth in terms ofoutput a key indicator of the industrial order (Boltanski and Thevenot 1991). The trauma ofher partner’s cancer appeared to instigate a change in values. Following this she began toconsider giving up work and moving to the countryside where she could be close to nature.She also took up painting. Confronting vulnerability created a window on a way of livingthat did not involve constant work. Her focus on ‘the organisation of tomorrow’ (Boltanskiand Thevenot 1991, 205) was replaced by a desire for the ‘impressions and feelings of themoment’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1991, 163). This was realised as walks in the countryside

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and painting, which were times of being, not of production but the creative expression asso-ciated with the ‘order of the inspired’.

Melanie’s shift in desire resulted from illness. When diagnosed with multiple sclerosisshe was forced to rethink her future. As someone who had undertaken a large number offurther education courses to develop and hone skills in science and information technology,she was again very keen to maintain her lifestyle through hard work. Her illness hasenforced a gradual acceptance of physical limitation. She has reconstructed how she valuesuse of time. This has resulted in a focus on herself and opportunities to express. Time spenthaving coffee with friends is now time well spent. She has opened up to uncertainty and to‘a life of detours’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1991, 162), Instead of working hard to sustainher relationship with her husband, she chose separation as he encroached on her ability tolive freely. Although the physical pain that Melanie lives with daily is considerable, sheremains positive and sees how her illness has presented an opportunity for self-expression.

Conflicting desire

Elisabeth was born into an affluent situation. Her parents valued education and encouragedher to pursue a career. She was employed in social care while undertaking a degree insociology. On leaving university she worked full-time for a homeless agency to gain theexperience required for professional social work. While Elisabeth’s educational and careertrajectory appear focused on a similar outcome, she expressed uncertainty. Elisabethshowed concern for others in less privileged situations than she acknowledged her own tobe, and therefore is aware of a ‘mission’ to improve ‘collective experience’ (Boltanski andThevenot 1991, 188). However, she also desired the spontaneity of the ‘inspired’ order andthe wish for family aligned with the ‘domestic’. In order to prolong making any commit-ment she decided to travel. She showed difficulty in pinning down what she wanted to door where she wanted to be in terms of a linear career trajectory. The unfettered space thattravel might permit is one she hoped would allow her to resolve this conflict.

Kathleen Donnelly comes from a working-class family. Her job in the Post Officeprovided her with security, which was coupled with boredom. Living in an abusive relation-ship she spent her free time enjoying the pleasures of recreational drugs. She criticised thisbehaviour from the perspective of the civic as being selfish (Boltanski and Thevenot 1991,251), and from the domestic as being a ‘disordered’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1991, 241)magazine lifestyle. The new responsibility of her daughter’s birth refocused Kathleen’sthinking. She left both partner and job and undertook a further education course in socialsciences. Here she learned a language to describe her opportunity impoverished backgroundand reasons for her difficulty progressing.

Kathleen’s course in community development aimed to secure employment for its partic-ipants through a work placement scheme and an SVQ award. She became increasingly cyni-cal about the process throughout the course and believed that this experience was neitheraligned with nor useful to the workplace. She felt lied to as the vast majority of her coursecolleagues did not progress to the promised employment. Although she completed the qual-ification she suffered mental ill-health, and finished feeling confused and directionless.

Kathleen described a number of conflicting interests. As a mother she was conscious of‘personal dependency’ of the domestic order. She showed passion for social justice andwanted to be able to make a difference to those people with whom she identified as disad-vantaged by a culture of poverty. She spoke of ‘raging against the machine’, aware of beinga part of an oppressed community ‘unified’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1991, 187) by poverty.She therefore aligned with the collective interests of the ‘civic order’. Although critical of

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it, she also desired the free expressive lifestyle, the spontaneity and autonomy of the ‘worldof the inspired.’ During the last interview her prevailing need was employment – this wasnot so much resolution as punctuation in her experience of conflict that had immobilised her.

These stories plot the decision-making processes through which individuals havedirected their lives. This generates an understanding of where and how change was madepossible. It is a map of experience that shows a set of commonalities across the three dimen-sions of space, relations and time. These are described as a ‘machinery of desire’ as theydescribe its operations.

Features that relate to space are embodied experience in differentiated contexts, notsimply reflective choice and perceived proximity to opportunities. In reference to the social,relational experience had most effect where the ‘other’ was significant to the values of theindividual. The temporal nature of desire becomes apparent across life stories as it is adynamic process that does not stand still. The physical and the relational are woven into adeveloping momentum that requires a significant intervention to halt, commence or re-direct. The following discussion of these three areas that comprise the ‘machinery of desire’shows how it is enmeshed with the ability to perceive and act upon life choices.

Machinery of desire

The map of experience shows how desire closely aligns with values. Just as Spinoza (1996,76) suggests that ‘we desire not because we judge a thing to be good, but that we judgesomething to be good because we desire it’, so Learning Lives contributors justified theirdesires on the basis of what they permit. Sheelagh knew that following a teaching career toheadship would have resulted in greater economic wealth, influence on the lives of othersand status, but she did not value such experiences and opted for the route of more indepen-dence. Fraser knew that further training and/or promotion would improve his income, butas he valued family relationships these were no incentive for him. Contrary to policy imper-atives, Sheelagh and Fraser linked happiness to emotional not economic productivity. Theywere inspired to develop skills not by the career progression initiatives, designed ‘toincrease people’s aspirations’ (HM Treasury 2006, 6) proposed by government, but by theirown values. The map also shows that these values are not static and that an exploration ofthat movement generates a set of commonalities that describe how the movement of desireis influenced by the spatial, the relational and the temporal. This is described as ‘machinery’as it is in and through these dimensions that desire progresses and changes.

Spatial: embodiment

Hume repeatedly points toward the embodied nature of the passions, as perceptions thatenter with ‘force and liveliness’ (2006, 7) as opposed to ideas that are ‘faint images’ (Hume2006, 7). Shifting desires appear closely connected with physical change. All of the storiesthat suggest a shift in the focus of desire are linked to the body. Both Helena and Melaniedescribe the physical changes in their energy and emotion as pivotal in the decisions thatthey have made. While Rosie did not experience bodily change personallym she describedin detail the alterations in her partner’s physical capacities that have had a huge effect onher own values. Her partner’s cancer affected her hearing. In parallel, Rosie focused on herown sensory capacity. She was drawn to feeling, seeing, hearing and smelling nature. Walksin the countryside and painting increasingly replaced work-related activities.

These changes are not simply reflected as a way of thinking about the world, but asa way of living. The performance of change is so closely aligned with the change that

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differentiating becomes impossible. Judith Butler (1999) argues that desire is produced inperformance, and not that performance results from desire. Melanie exemplifies this whenforced to live a different life as a result of physical change, which generated a shift invalues. According to Hume, ‘reason alone can never produce any action’ (2006, 266).Rosie spoke of ‘finding herself’ drawn to creative pursuits. The activities did not resultfrom conscious reflection. The walks in the countryside with her partner are both evidenceof and productive of a changing set of values causing her to question her previous orienta-tion toward the professional competence associated with the ‘industrial order’.

Spatial: proximity

Hume proposes that ‘contiguous objects must have an influence much superior to the distantand remote’ (2006, 274). Spinoza’s (1996) metaphor of appetite also suggests the impor-tance of proximity. Just as the smell of fresh bread arouses hunger, so the object of desireneeds to be close enough to taste. Remote awareness is insufficient – contributors describemany possible life options that did not appear to have any lasting impact, as viable optionsemerge from their own locality. Diverse factors place an object of desire within reach.Fraser’s trajectory reveals a series of steps that did not commence with an objective of qual-ifications. His initial engagement with text-based knowledge linked to achievement inmartial arts. His motivation was to a gain a black belt, studying a facet of this activity.However, this positive experience allowed him to see textual work within his reach, makingit possible for him to imagine completing an information technology course and then aHigher National Certificate.

This closeness contained in the imagination is therefore not physical closeness or knowl-edge of availability; it appears more as psychic awareness (Fromm 2003). Sheelagh used theterminology of ‘discovery’ when she realised her capacity to perform the role of guidanceteacher through role-play. This activity permitted her to connect with herself as guidanceteacher. She did not describe this as a learning process because the connection that she madeimmediately appeared as part of herself – a self-discovery.

Relational: significant others

Policy suggests that the only significant relationship is employer–employee; however, thestories describe a much broader image. Affirmation from significant others at home, in theworkplace and beyond was often crucial to enable connections that are embodied andpsychic not just reasoned. These people act as Lacan’s (1989) mirror, reflecting back a viewfrom an angle that has not been experienced previously. The affirmation from a boss, tutor,partner or friend was a value judgement that afforded permission to become that which wasreflected back. This mode of becoming of extending and shifting identity coincides withGidden’s (1994) analysis of modern therapy and the role of relationships, where he argues;

In a pure relationship the individual does not simply recognise the other … Rather … self-identityis negotiated through linked processes of self-exploration and development of intimacy withthe other. (Giddens 1994, 97)

In many cases the life stories suggest that such relationships can be formed out withGidden’s definition of ‘pure relationships’ with partners, children and parents, where shiftsin identity are found where there is intimacy and trust. Rosie’s story suggests that effectscan be found where the significant other is neither intimate nor liked. For most of her life

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Rosie made choices as a result of a strong work ethic. She was permitted a vision of herselfas a manager by her colleagues, who over a period of years enabled and affirmed this image.However in her current post, a recent line manager did not provide the affirmations she wasaccustomed to. His questions led her to believe that her work practice was lacking. Thisexperience had a major impact on her sense of self. As work at that point was the mostsignificant focus of her life, this produced crisis. She could no longer trust her ability to dothe job. The stories show that the impact of the reflector is dependent on their significancewithin a particular ‘order’ or value context. Rosie’s manager operated from the workplace;his alignment with the ‘industrial order’ enlarged his potential impact. Fraser, whose desireswere located in the domestic order’, received affirmation from his family. For Helena theresponses of asylum seekers were significant in her ambition for ‘global citizenship’ –family and work colleagues could not reflect this desired image. ‘Significant others’ arecreated through their alignment with the value context of the individual. Their reflectionsthen become significant in the dynamic production of identity. This might be termed an‘external’ but unspoken conversation.

Temporal: mobility

According to Hume (2006, 509), ‘the passions are apt to remain strong and lively as long aspossible’. The mobile nature of desire has been suggested by other scholars. Boltanski andThevenot’s ‘orders of worth’ indicate mobility; productivity requires production; expres-sion, ongoing performance; civic duty, constant reform; status, ever-present public interest;and wealth, ongoing accumulation. Mobility features in most of the cases not with regard tounderlying interest but in how this was serviced. Although Fraser stopped short of academicprogression, he continued to hone the quality of life for his family, such as the search for animproved martial arts project for himself and his sons. Melanie’s prolonged engagementwith further education appears to result from an ongoing desire to be continually achieving.Sheelagh expanded from writing to recital to performance. Helena invested in new anddifferent ways to effect social change; each manifestation an extension and adaptation of thelast. When this process of renewal is disrupted, the result is malaise.

Willie Cotter pined for an experience of family that he no longer believed possible. Heimagined the adult life that his dead son cannot have and talked of the impossibility of grand-children. His desire had become immobilised. Willie attended many adult education courses,which he found interesting but ineffective to motivate beyond his depression. He describedthese courses as academic, he was an observer and they provided a distraction, at best some-thing to talk about. Kathleen Donnelly was acting on the desire to effect social changethrough her community development SVQ. However, she quickly concluded that her situa-tion was not a vehicle for change but one that affirmed the status quo, making her feel morepowerless than ever. Disaffected and without a vision she walked out and sought psychiatricsupport. Kathleen experienced a disruption in the flow of desire that operated to negativeeffect. Disaffected, she could see no way forward and therefore could not imagine the future.

Desire as a force in a state of constant renewal makes it possible to understand why it isviewed as consuming and in need of control (Hume 2006; Stern 2002). It is evident fromthe stories that individuals do not easily shift their underlying beliefs as to the best way tolive and produce happiness. Sheelagh described this in recognition that she clings to desirefor self-development and actively resists the value of materialism:

… I think we’re always afraid to give ourselves a bit of leeway in case we somehow fall intothe place we don’t want to be, you know.

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She recognised how easily desire for self-expression might disallow material comfort of anykind as this might betray the values that drive her.

Temporal: momentum

This view of desire might mistakenly lead us to believe that desire is circular and mighteventually collapse in on itself, similar to the criticisms of Bourdieu’s (1993) ‘habitus’ asreproductive (Webb, Schirato, and Danaher 2002). However, the stories suggest that whilefundamental shifts are not readily made when active, desire is productive and expansive.

Rosie’s work progress appears rooted in her strong desire for productivity and effective-ness; she moved through the workplace hierarchy as a result. A series of managers provideda vision of her as manager, just as Fraser’s wife permitted an image of him as a social worker.Sheelagh’s guidance teacher role-play is described as a different vision of herself, not as anaddition of knowledge. This psychic connection affords a becoming that is not simply aboutknowledge acquisition. Knowles (2002, 34) makes explicit the connection between desire,identity and becoming, ‘I desire an apple – therefore – I am an apple desirer’. Desire becomesof itself identity producing.

Helena desired motherhood and began connecting herself with the attributes of mother-hood and simultaneously disconnecting from associations with social activism. This discon-nection was both psychic and material. She did not begrudge altering her work pattern orgiving up voluntary work as she no longer connected with that image of herself. Her newdepiction was of home and children. In contrast, although Elisabeth was at the end of hersocial work degree, her conflict made it difficult for her to visualise herself as social worker.She described her course colleagues moving in this direction with ease but was unable tovisualise herself in this role. She was unsure whether this is what she wanted and thereforehad difficulty making the psychic connections that would allow it to happen. She did not yetwish to be consumed by the professional world of social work.

The machinery of desire in motion constitutes a vision of the future that is productiveand expansive but when blocked results in a loss of control. It therefore closely connectswith individuals’ degree of perceived authority and capacity to determine their life choices.Desire and agency are therefore linked. The following section discusses the complex inter-relationship between individual position and physical and imagined contexts that result inaction or stasis.

Building agentic capacity

The idea that ‘individuals must be part of the shared national mission to achieve world classskills’ (HM Treasury 2006, 103) does not accommodate the complexity, subtlety or localityof individual desire which leads to agentic action. Scott (2006, 3) describes agency as ‘thedynamic element within an actor that translates potential capacity into actual experience’. Thisdynamic capacity links to contexts that afford embodied, emotional and intellectual possi-bilities to desire and therefore imagine a future aligned to individual values. Unlike Archer’s‘internal conversation’, desire is relational – produced through exchange with environmentand others not ‘our power to deliberate internally’ (Archer 2003, 342). Bourdieu’s contraryidea of ‘habitus’ develops an enmeshed account of agency and structure. However, this is notwithout issue – it has been described as deterministic (Webb, Schirato, and Danaher 2002)and reproductive as it shuts out the possibility of movement beyond itself. Desire, in contrast,incurs productive movement and radical potential where values shift. Desire as an ‘impetuous,disorderly and irreducible emergence’ (Goodchild 1996, 11) is a productive force. It is desire

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that enabled many Learning Lives contributors to defy and transgress the productivity focusof government. Growing desire builds agency as it weaves imagination with context.

Imagination

Hume’s constant reference to the imagination indicates its significance for him. Imaginationis the fertile ground in which body, psyche and environment meet. In the imagination, possi-bilities for different ways to live are experienced and different identity performancesrehearsed. In each of the stories, shifts in desire were performed here first of all. Imaginationmight be seen as the capacity-builder of identity. Fraser’s ability to imagine himself as a socialwork graduate made this a viable option. Elisabeth’s inability to imagine herself as a socialworker blocked this pathway, although she had the credentials. Sheelagh the guidance teacherbecame real in her imagination. Helena described herself at home with a baby, taking oppor-tunities to read while the baby sleeps. Her imagination had let go of civic worker in favourof a new domestic image. While reflective reasoning is a key skill currently assumed valuableacross education (Cieslik 2006 ; Clegg 2000 ; Boud, Keough, and Walker 1998), the lifestories tell of the imagination igniting and preceding agentic action. ‘It is in the imaginationthat obstacles produced by reason might be overcome’ (Hume 2006, 1, 4, 2). Kathleen’sreasoned reflections arising from sociological studies obstructed her ability to imagine herselfin different circumstances. The evidence told her that structural restrictions destined her toa life of limited opportunity and poverty. This is not to suggest that reasoning has no placein agentic action, simply to point out the potential of imagination to enable action.

Imagination, far from being ‘internal’, produces multiple connections with context. Theinfluence of significant others and significant environment are constitutive elements in itsoperations.

Inscriptions of space

Perceptions of physical space closely link with imagination for Hume: ‘tis obvious that theimagination can never totally forget the points of space and time’ (Hume 2006, 274). Spacewas recognised by the contributors as important in increasing their capacity to achieve. Themachinery of Sheelagh’s desire led her out of full-time employment into less constrainedsituations. She chose to move to the seaside. This decision made unconsciously was madeconscious through the reflective process of interview revealing the influence of location onher sense of capacity for control. Life by the sea, the sounds, the smells the vision allowedher to feel more like ‘herself’. It built her capacity to express as she wished and in turn makedecisions that mobilised this performance. Unstructured natural spaces feature in Rosie’sdesire for creative self-expression, while Helena and Fraser described the development ofhome as significant. Fraser did not wish promotion to a different project as this would affectproximity to his home. Losing this closeness unsettled him and appeared to make him feelout of control. What most mattered to him was to be with his family; from home he coulddevelop activities with his wife and sons, which expanded and nurtured this area of his life.Different spaces are seen to influence a sense of control and its expansion.

The stories suggest that the internal and external worlds are not separate entities butoperate on the same plane. External reality is not disjoined but infolded (Deleuze 2006).Kathleen left her home in one location because of its effect of disintegrating her identity.She perceived fragmentation in the physical space around her. The external became internal,and the internal perceived outside. Such spatial connections are described by Rose (1996) –where life experience occurs on a plane without interior or exterior, ‘but (is) a discontinuoussurface, a kind of infolding of exteriority’ (Rose 1996, 227).

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688 H. Lynch

Conclusions

Desire enables a way of thinking about the values and drives within which identity isconstructed, agency is produced and learning occurs. This is an affective process that reliesas much on imagination, emotion and environment as on reason. Each is significant to themomentum of desire, and, when obstructed, desire decreases and a sense of hopelessnessfollows. Government desire for ‘work focused learning’ (HM Treasury 2006 , 112) under-pinned by a value of economic growth appears narrow and restrictive in comparison withthose expressed by contributors.

Neoliberal government values that are tied to the market are clearly not of such impor-tance to many learning lives contributors who reject opportunities for increased incomewhere they compromise more valued areas of their lives. However, these individuals areimplicated in policy as responsible stakeholders in the endeavour for economic productiv-ity. This was seen to have a negative effect where individuals perceived themselves as fail-ing (Bansel 2007). Those who chose not to follow a perceived correct line of action sawtheir actions as transgressive but justified within their particular sphere of values. So howmight policy-makers learn from this articulation of desire as multiple?

The argument presented suggests that policy needs to acknowledge the multiplicity ofvalues that are evident across the population instead of pursuing economic productivity as‘nearly everything’. It is also clear that context plays a major part in the constitution ofdesire. It is notable that contributors who live in environments that are oppressive and frag-mented find it difficult to gain momentum as they encounter impossibility around them.Lifelong learning policies that aim to develop human capital (Coffield 1999) isolate indi-viduals from context and make them responsible regardless of their situation. So the key aimof Scotland’s skills strategy to ‘equip individuals’ overlooks the environments and commu-nities in which these individuals live. Strategies for lifelong learning need therefore to takea much wider perspective, where environment, social networks, and individual and commu-nity values are taken into consideration.

There is also a warning for governments who wish to take seriously the developingdesires of individuals and communities. The desires evidenced in the stories that have beenenabled to expand show a force capable of altering the course of lives and transgressingwidely held assumptions. Nurtured desire therefore may create opportunities for democracythat are in tension with neoliberal forms of government that silently limit choice.

AcknowledgementsLearning Lives: Learning, Identity and Agency in the Life-Course is funded by the Economic andSocial Research Council (Award Reference RES139250111), and is part of the Economic and SocialResearch Council’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Learning Lives is a collaborativeproject involving the University of Exeter (Gert Biesta, Flora Macleod, Michael Tedder, PaulLambe), the University of Brighton (Ivor Goodson, Norma Adair), the University of Leeds (PhilHodkinson, Heather Hodkinson, Geoff Ford, Ruth Hawthorne), and the University of Stirling (JohnField, Heather Lynch). For further information, see www.learninglives.org.

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