This article examines the processes of knowledge acquisition and transmission among adults within two "communities of practice" in Humboldt Park/"Paseo Boricua," a Puerto Rican community located on Chicago's near-northwest side. In particular, we examine the ways in which two adult women engaged in learning processes and…

Policy makers and researchers are increasingly showing interest in lifelong learning due to a rising unemployment rate in recent years. Much attention has been paid to determinants and benefits of lifelong learning but not to the impact of social capital on lifelong learning so far. In this article, we study how social and human capital can…

The purpose of this article was to identify how differing cultural factors affect informal learning in the workplace. We have introduced concepts and reviewed studies on informal learning and national culture based on an extensive literature review on the factors influencing informal learning, particularly based on five Hofstede's dimensions…

Since informal learning occurs outside of formal learning environments, describing informal learning and how it takes place can be a challenge for researchers. Past studies have typically oriented to informal learning as an individual, reflective process that can best be understood through the learners' retrospective accounts about their…

Storyville, the legalized red-light district of New Orleans (1897-1917), was a designated space containing informal opportunities for learning in which its residents practiced the sex trade. Although Storyville was created to regulate prostitution, prostitutes and madams learned the city's legal system, politics, and economics to survive in a…

Learning is generally viewed as a positive process bringing benefits to the individual, leading to growth and self-development. But is this always the case? This article draws on empirical research with refugees and considers the processes of transforming experience and learning that accompanies transition to life in the United Kingdom. I will…

Self-help literature has become an important domain of adult learning in North America. Self-help books offer readers advice on how to take charge of their lives and achieve goals such as prosperity, love, happiness, wellness, and self-actualization. Despite the popularity of self-help books, there has been little research about them from scholars…

Gaining proficiency in the host country language is a key element to successful integration of new immigrants. In this article, the author adopts Bourdieu's perspective that accumulation and conversion of forms of capital is only possible through practice in a social field; therefore, the author puts forward the idea that language capital…

The authors examine the modernist underpinnings of traditional adult learning and development theories and evaluate elements of those theories through more contemporary lenses. Drawing on recent literature focused on "public pedagogy," the authors argue that much learning takes place outside of formal educational institutions. They look beyond…

This study explored innovative alternative processes of living, learning, and knowledge sharing of a loosely knit community of anarchist, anticapitalist "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) activists. Generated through participant observation and interviews, findings reinforced adult education theories--that adults can diagnose their own learning needs and…

This article discusses shopping, especially critical shopping, as a process of informal and incidental adult learning about the intersecting politics of globalization and consumption. The author uses academic skills and disciplines as a metaphor to respond to an emerging conceptual question: To what extent can formality, informality, and…

Feminist nonprofit organizations are sites of informal and nonformal learning where citizens learn advocacy, literacy, and the practices of social democracy. With the growing use of information and communication technologies in the nonprofit sector, there are questions as to how well organizations are able to make use of this technology to further…

The informal learning that older (age 50+) men experience in Australia has been the subject of a suite of recent, intensive, mixed methods research projects in community-based voluntary organizations. The purpose of the research was to examine where men are learning in these contexts beyond work and formal education rather than to assume and…

Without adult education, there would have been no Communist government in China. Once the Long March arrived in Yan'an, Mao and Communist leaders used adult education in informal and nonformal settings to build momentum for revolution. This article analyzes the theory and practice of adult education during the Yan'an "golden years" (1936-1939) of…

This article outlines, critiques, and revises Griff Foley's analytical framework for the study of informal learning in social action. This reformulation is prompted by the author's own research on young women's experiences and learning in social struggle, and by the need to take into account the interdependence of systems of domination underlying…