Learning Communities: Strengthening Lifelong Learning through Practice. A Demos/Learning and Skills Development Agency Seminar Series.

This paper details the work of Demos and the Learning and Skills Development Agency to examine how new institutional structures for supporting lifelong learning can develop in ways that best support community-based learning activities in the United Kingdom. Three seminar background papers and notes are provided, each followed by seminar notes. "Communities, Learning, and Contemporary Society" asks how community is defined in practice and compares these working definitions against the principles and criteria used by central government and policymakers and explores the forms of community that might best develop a lifelong learning agenda in ways that can tackle deprivation. "Local Organizations and Community Learning" examines examples of best practice and innovation in engaging local communities and certain case studies. It explores what role various providers play in stimulating and shaping community-based learning activity; how responsiveness to community fits with their core objectives and statutory responsibilities; and whether new technologies offer new possibilities for outreach, provision of learning opportunities, and community-based decision making. "Learning Communities--A Framework for Funding, Planning, and Accountability" addresses the role of local and national frameworks and seeks to identify key strategic priorities for policymakers. It asks what role these structures play in blocking or stimulating community-based learning and seeks to identify connections between education and other key areas of local and national policy. (YLB)