The article explores the conceptualization of learning and context from a number of perspectives and some of the theoretical and methodological issues raised when context is no longer considered as a container, but as a relational effect. It provides an introduction for the articles that follow, insofar as they take up lines of flight from the issues raised. Central to the article are the questions of what makes something specifically a learning context; and what different ways of conceiving the relationship between learning and context might be, and with what implications.