Abstract
The policy discourse of lifelong learning usually emphasises progressive social objectives such as social cohesion, equal opportunities, social inclusion, active citizenship, and so on. Public education systems have been seen as a means of securing social progress. But globalisation of the economy, together with the abandonment of social welfare in favour of neo-liberal market policies on the part of many governments raises doubts about the possibility of achieving progressive social aims. The incorporation of lifelong learning into welfare reform and human resource development therefore raises issues about the status of lifelong learning policy with respect to its often stated aims.

Policy analysis has traditionally been concerned with the role of the state in social democratic redistribution of educational opportunities by way of education and other public services. The object of social policy analysis has been, in fact, the Welfare State. The question therefore arises as to whether or not lifelong learning, together with related concepts such as the learning society, constitute an element of the wider threat to the public education system.

Three primary meanings are derived from the policy discourse of lifelong learning :

• Lifelong learning as a policy for the expansion of the education and training system, addressed to competitiveness and employability
• Lifelong learning as a strategy for the reform of the welfare state, whereby the role of the state is limited to providing the conditions for learning.
• Lifelong learning as a cultural practice, according to which learning ceases altogether to be an object of provision but is integrated into patterns of production, consumption and lifestyle : the so-called 'learning culture' or 'learning revolution'.

In the course of these meanings of lifelong learning, the state progressively relinquishes responsibility and control over the outcomes of learning, with consequent implications for progressive social, or welfare, functions.