The “Salon zum Verrücken” (“Salon for a Praxis of Shifting”) was a contribution to the retreat “The Dark Side of Adult Education diskutieren – solidarisieren” at the bifeb (Federal Institute for Adult Education), which took place from 8 to 10 October 2018 in St. Wolfgang in Austria.
One of the main aims of the conference was “to encourage a large number of critically engaged persons from the academic and practical fields of (adult) education to enter into an intensive dialogue, to reflected on common grounds and goals allowing also for differences, to initiate critical self-assessment and positioning and thus to create a basis for the strengthening of critical (adult) education.”
The “Salon zum Verrücken” took up the core themes of this conference in a playful way and stimulated joint questioning of how critical adult education presents itself to audiences and communicates its core identity in the context of universities, suggesting that there are a number of wrinkles and folds to be considered, possibly in need to be ironed out.
Through a performative ironing action, the participants of the conference were invited to enter into productive dialogue in the field of tension between their own convictions and attitudes and the principles of adult education proclaimed by their institutions and to imagine folds in the system.
Click here for the documentation of the conference: The dark side of adult education (in German)