Learning / Work: Turning Work and Lifelong Learning Inside Out

Thirty-four leading scholars from 10 countries challenge established understandings of lifelong learning and work in this provocative counter-narrative. Drawn from the Fifth International Researching Work and Learning Conference, this exploration offers a radical critique of the underlying societal power relations that dictate the possibilities for learning/work and considers alternatives steeped in social justice. Among the topics examined are how social justice and sustainability for the majority in the world are interlinked with work and the workplace environment and knowledge is formally and informally generated in workplaces worldwide and why long-held principles of work and lifelong learning should be turned inside out through a rigorous critique of underlying social relations and practices in order to better understand the power relations shaping potential learning and work outcomes.

Thirty-four leading scholars from 10 countries challenge established understandings of lifelong learning and work in this provocative counter-narrative. Drawn from the Fifth International Researching Work and Learning Conference, this exploration offers a radical critique of the underlying societal power relations that dictate the possibilities for learning/work and considers alternatives steeped in social justice. Among the topics examined are how social justice and sustainability for the majority in the world are interlinked with work and the workplace environment and knowledge is formally and informally generated in workplaces worldwide and why long-held principles of work and lifelong learning should be turned inside out through a rigorous critique of underlying social relations and practices in order to better understand the power relations shaping potential learning and work outcomes.

Linda Cooper is a senior lecturer in the higher and adult education studies development unit in the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Researching Work and Learning Conference. Shirley Walters is a professor of adult and continuing education and a director of the Division for Lifelong Learning at the University of Western Cape. She is a chairperson of the South African Qualifications Authority and was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2005.