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
Using theory drawn from education, feminist theory, cultural studies and human geography, this work explores the related issues of belonging, learning and community.
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. Anthony Haynes is former Chair of the English Association schools committee, former faculty co-ordinator and mentor of PGCE students and NQTs.
'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
‘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*
'Within her introduction, Quinn suggests that her aims for this
book are twofold: "one is to develop generative and innovative
thinking about learning, in a spirit of pleasure, the other is to
pay critical attention to the needs of learners and to make a
material difference in this world" (p. 2). This is an ambitious
agenda, which has resulted in a challenging text: the reader's
journey is not always easy, but it is always enjoyable and the
rewards are worthwhile...Quinn has furnished this "shared space" in
an eclectic style: the book is crammed with concepts drawn from
across a range of academic disciplines, insights from poetry and
fiction and a vast array of research data. Throughout, Quinn is
attentive to the aesthetic qualities of the text: this is a book
which Quinn has taken evident joy in the writing and which is a
pleasure to read.'
*British Educational Research Journal*
'For me a particular strength of the book is the iconoclastic
approach taken to some of the concepts that now seem ubiquitous in
educational literature - particularly notions of identity,
community and social capital... It is refreshing to read any
academic work that does not simply tread the same old path, but
which seeks to find new forms of expression - motivated not by idle
preferences but by trying to find the best way of sharing
particular ideas. I do not agree with all of the author's arguments
and conclusions, but I do not think she expects any reader to. This
is a book as dialogue.'
*Studies in Higher Education*
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