Community Education and Neoliberalism

This book explores community education in Ireland and argues that neoliberalism has had a profound effect on community education. Rather than retain its foundational characteristics of collective, equality-led principles and practices, community education has lost much of its independence and has been reshaped into spaces characterised by labour-market activation, vocationalisation and marketisation. These changes have often, though not always, run contrary to the wishes of those involved in community education creating enormous tensions for practitioners, course providers and participants.

Camilla Fitzsimons is Lecturer in Adult and Community Education at Maynooth University, Co. Kildare, Ireland. She began working as a community educator in the 1990s and has worked with many groups including women's groups, intercultural groups, housing rights groups and community development and Leadership groups.