Negotiated ambitions through the social dynamic of time organization

This article addresses the personal negotiations that lead individuals to pursue adult education. Analysing this process points up the ambitions pursued and thus makes it possible to identify how the individuals involved perceive their desired future as an improvement. This study found that ambitions were negotiated in order to make them acceptable to the individuals themselves, but also to the significant others in their lives and to their “social self”. This negotiation process draws on norms and rules related to the search for work?life balance. Three types of ambition were identified as three models for negotiating the social organization of time.