What's the use of Foucault in research on lifelong learning and post-compulsory education?: A review of four academic journals

The aim of this article is to contribute to a discussion of what potential the use of Foucault has in relation to the field of lifelong learning and post-compulsory education. Such a discussion is based on an analysis focusing on the uses of Foucault in articles published in four academic journals in this field between 1999 and 2006. Based on a qualitative analysis, four main uses were construed: an interpretative strategy, an eclectic use, a way to pose an argument and decoration. Based on my findings, I argue that the uses of Foucault in this area of research as represented in these journals are to a large extent superficial and to some extent more in the nature of a revitalised critical discourse. Further, I argue that uses of Foucault, especially as a main interpretative strategy, help us to make visible our taken-for-granted ideas about adult education and lifelong learning; how power operates in these practices and what the effects of such operations are.