Learning Communities and Imagined Social Capital

Using theory drawn from Education, Cultural Studies and Human Geography, this work explores the related issues of belonging, learning and community. This book draws on a range of research studies conducted with adult learners both nationally and internationally in formal and informal contexts (including universities, voluntary sector and community based projects, work and leisure). It uses interdisciplinary theory drawn from Education, Cultural Studies and Human Geography to explore the related issues of belonging, learning and community. It critiques dominant ideas and practices of learning community in Higher Education and Lifelong Learning as simplistic and regulatory and argues that learners gain most benefit from creating their own symbolic communities and networks, which help to produce 'imagined' social capital. It demonstrates how such imagined social capital works, using a rich variety of empirical data. It then considers how these new critical perspectives can help us to rethink education as a cultural practice. "Continuum Studies in Educational Research (CSER)" is a major new series in the field of educational research. Written by experts and scholars for experts and scholars, this ground-breaking series focuses on research in the areas of comparative education, history, lifelong learning, philosophy, policy, post-compulsory education, psychology and sociology. Based on cutting edge research and written with lucidity and passion, the "CSER" series showcases only those books that really matter in education - studies that are major, that will be remembered for having made a difference.

Jocey Quinn is Professor at the Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University.