Asian Lifelong Learning in the Context of a Global Knowledge Economy - A Task Re-Visited

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Grenda

Article revisits and reinterprets the author’s earlier work on lifelong learning system building across selected Asian countries, using the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and its aftermath as a reflective lens. It revisits arguments that economic recession reshaped local education systems through a global dimension of lifelong learning, while adult education traditions in the region adapted to global market standards. It further examines how global forces and the lifelong learning system interact within a knowledge economy context.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Asian Lifelong Learning and Global Knowledge Economy

Crisis-driven human capital and policy meaning

Lifelong Learning in the Post-Crisis Asia

Lessons Revisited

Asia Pacific Education Review Copyright 2007 by Education Research Institute 2007, Vol. 8, No.3, 478-486. Asian Lifelong Learning in the Context of a Global Knowledge Economy: A Task Re-Visited Soonghee Han Seoul National University Korea This article revisits and reinterprets my previous paper. It is a snapshot of the lifelong learning system building in selected Asian countries, reflected in the mirror of the Asian Financial Crisis in the 1997s and the aftermath of that event. I reconsidered the arguments (1) the economic recession had delivered a global dimension of lifelong learning to the re-shaping of the local education system beyond local attributes; (2) and that the divergent tradition of adult education in this context was to meet the global market standards. Additionally,(3) I tried to further the discussion about the relationship between global forces and the lifelong learning system in the context of a knowledge economy, but with a number of different approaches. I argued that the lifelong learning system under the global forces of capitalism, as per the Asian experience in the 2000s, can be apart of a knowledge economy itself, not a tool of it, and in this sense, a knowledge economy sets the conditions of a lifelong learning system as an embryo of its attributes. Key words: lifelong learning, nonformal education, adult education, East and Southeast Asia, global knowledge economy, Asian financial crisis Introduction Six years ago I had published a paper in this very Journal, the Asia Pacific Education Review, an article entitled ‘Creating systems for lifelong learning in Asia’(Han, 2001) . In that article, I investigated the lifelong learning support systems which had suddenly emerged in six Asian countries including Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong(SAR), Thailand, and the Philippines. My conclusion at that time was that the lifelong learning systems of each of these countries were influentially pushed forward by the economic instability of the 1997 Asian Soonghee Han, Department of Education, Seoul National University, Korea. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Soonghee Han, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. e-mail: [learn@snu.ac.kr](learn@snu.ac.kr) Financial Crisis, and were geared to function as a stabilizer, if in part, for the massive structural adjustment at the PostCrisis. Of course, the phenomenon of economic turmoil pushing forward new education systems is not rare, but can in fact be often seen by reference to several previous experiences. From 1988, Japan fell into a ‘long term depression’ or a ‘lost ten years’, a down turn of the “bubble economy” which lasted from the middle of the 1980s until 2002. Significant reformations of lifelong learning happened in that period of time. During that decade, the Japanese lifetime employment system was undermined and the tradition of in-house training for employees lost ground, occupational skills development to be left outside the company. Since then, the social responsibility of continuing education and training was emphasized, and the concept of lifelong learning (Shoukai Kakushou) began taking a leading role while the previous system of community education Asian Lifelong Learning and Global Knowledge Economy (Shakai Kyoiku) was restricted to adult liberal education. The Social Education Bureau underwent a change of name to the Lifelong Learning Bureau in 1988, and the Lifelong Learning Promotion Law was established in 1990. In Europe also, the Exchange Rate Mechanism(ERM) Crisis of 1992 gave the U.K the worst recession since the end of World War II, with unemployment rates in excess of 10% . The same year in 1992, coincidently or not, the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 was enacted, and redirected the Conservative Government's weak policies in major education training to "move slowly but steadily from state-led regulation towards marketized" regulation, while stimulating greater part

FAQs

Which crisis is used to frame the article’s reinterpretation of lifelong learning systems?

The article uses the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 and its aftermath to reflect on how lifelong learning systems were built and reshaped.

What does the author argue about the relationship between economic recession and lifelong learning?

The author argues that economic recession delivered a global dimension of lifelong learning, influencing the re-shaping of local education systems beyond local attributes.

How does the article explain the significance of lifelong learning discourse for policy in chaotic contexts?

It argues that lifelong learning discourse and implementation into real policies seem to take shape from such chaotic contexts, prompting questions about the theoretical framework behind global capitalism’s mechanisms.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Grenda