Education and Social Environment: Determinants of life-long learning in a metropolis

Research on life-long learning has a long and interesting tradition. The field of research on addressees and participants initially focussed on the question of which social groups are interested in Professional and cultural further education. Later, analyses were carried out which took into account the social-aesthetic dimensions of interest in further education and in life-long learning. Referring to these, the authors present results of an empirical study which analyzes the interest in further education of selected social environments in a large city. The degree to which the societal leitmilieus considered (the established, the postmaterialists, and the modern performers) participate in further education allows conclusions to be drawn about the clearly differentiated and plural forms of education in a metropolis. In both the older studies on participants and the above mentioned recent "Munich-study", the age of learners and their educational level is shown to strongly influence the concrete processes of education and learning throughout a life-span.