Learning Communities and Imagined Social Capital

Jocey Quinn is Professor of Education at the University of Plymouth, UK, and former Professor at the Institute for Policy Studies in Education at London Metropolitan University, UK. She is also Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter, UK.

• Introduction; 1. Learning to Belong; 2. Critiquing Learning Communities and Communities of Practice; 3. Conceptualising Imagined Social Capital; 4. Re-imagining Educational Spaces; 5. The Joy of Knowledge 6. Conclusion: Who Can Learn to Belong?; References; Index.

'Professor Quinn brings the spirit of pleasure to an intellectually expansive analysis of belonging and the material needs of the learner. In so doing, this study takes us well beyond the common place in considering the impact of lifelong learning.' Christina Hughes, Professor of Women and Gender and Chairperson in the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK 'In this important new book Jocey Quinn sets out her innovative work on imagined social capital in ways which bring alive the some 200 diverse learners who formed part of her data rich research. Through her powerful and stimulating analysis of (imagined) social capital she invites us to re-imagine educational spaces, terrains and communities, to discover the fluidity of 'belonging'. This book is a timely intervention in debates about social capital and learning communities, arguing for new ways of belonging through resistance.' Sue Jackson, Professor of Lifelong Learning and Gender, Pro-Vice-Master for Learning and Teaching and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Lifelong Learning, Birkbeck, University of London, UK 'Over the course of a hundred and fifty pages, the author has crafted a piece that combines theory development with the voices of research informants, educationalists, sociologists, philosophers, poets and authors of modern literature. This is a readable book.' Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning