This paper has two aims. First it introduces the main themes of this symposium, drawing on Richard Sennett's argument that contemporary flexible capitalism creates conditions that corrode character and undercut everyday politics of working life - what might once have been called a 'politics of liberation' that contests social relations of domination and subordination as an everyday pursuit of social justice and collective happiness. Second, it draws on the work of Frigga Haug as a way of extending Sennett's discussion of working life within an 'illeible regime of power'. Building on her discussions of practical politics developed in Female Sexualisation and Beyond Female Masochism, the paper develops concepts that help to explain the corrosion of character and open up way of re-thinking a politics of adult education work. The discussion is illustrated with reference to empirical research undertaken in adult education contexts (eg. a publicly funded TAFE Institute, a private training provider and minimally-funded partnerships which support young people making the transition from school to work through collaborative networks) in Australia. ReferencesFerguson, K. and Seddon, T. 2007 Decentred education, Critical Studies in Education 48 (1) (forthcoming) Haug, F. and others 1992 Female Sexualisation, Cambridge, Polity Haug, F. 1993 Beyond Female Masochism, Cambridge, Polity Seddon, T. Billett, S. and Clemans, A. 2005 Navigating social partnerships in VET: Central agencies - local networks, British Journal of Sociology of Education 26 (5), 567-584. Sennett, R. (1998). The corrosion of character: The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company