2. Lorenz Lassnigg takes steps towards a meta-level. Starting from the recognition that the concept of culture is not only fuzzy and unclear because of confusion and unqualified use, but does not even have a clear and consensual meaning in ‘serious cultural theory’ (Müller-Funk 2010/2006); rather, a genealogy of various meanings and understandings can be found that cannot lead to consensus, but to diverse understandings. From this contention, the question can be reasonably asked what kinds of concepts of culture might/can contribute to understanding better VET and its position/role within education and society. (Williams, 1983). This more general question can be made more concrete by reflecting first on how VET researchers have addressed/understood concepts of culture, and second on how concepts of culture are addressed in new attempts to develop theories of VET. (e.g. Heikkinen 2021; Esmond et al, 2023). One – conceptually quite ‘easy’ - and not uncommon – way to use concepts of culture for understanding VET is simply to name some residual aspects of key ingredients of VET that cannot be explained by other means or concepts as ‘culture’, e.g., work culture, school culture, enterprise culture, class culture, organisational culture, occupational culture, assessment culture, knowledge culture, achievement culture, etc. This raises the question of what these “cultures” might have in common (mostly referring to some unexplained behavioural or meaning-loaded aspects of ingredients), and how these ‘cultures’ relate to more general and sophisticated concepts of culture. From this contention, the question can be raised whether a more sophisticated concept of culture is necessary to gain explanatory power. (Reckwitz, 2019). The reference to culture in the new attempts towards VET theory can be illustratively compared to earlier forms of integrating concepts of culture into VET or education theory approaches.

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