Peter Jarvis is a towering figure in adult and lifelong education and a leading and original theorist of learning. This book explores the breadth and significance of his work.

Introduction: Local and global in the formation of a learning theorist: Peter Jarvis and adult education Part I: UNDERSTANDING LEARNING 1. Paradoxes of a Long Life Learning: an Exploration of Peter Jarvis's Contribution to Experiential Learning Theory 2.Peter Jarvis and the understanding of adult learning 3.The promise of lifelong learning 4. A critique of Peter Jarvis's conceptualisation of the lifelong learner in the contemporary cultural context Part II: LEARNING & THE MEANING OF LIFE 5. (Critical) learning in/through everyday life in a global consumer culture 6. Learning is an ontological process: Jarvis and theories of Christian Religious Education in dialogue 7. Opening spaces of conversation: citizen education for newcomers as a democratic practice Part III: ADULT EDUCATION, CITIZENSHIP & DEMOCRACY 8. Resisting the enormous condescension of posterity: Richard Henry Tawney, Raymond Williams and the long struggle for a democratic education 9. Decoding the neoliberal subjectivity in self-helping adult learners 10. International organisations and the construction of the learning active citizen: Ananalysis of adult learning policy documents from a Durkheimian perspective Part IV: GLOBAL & LOCAL 11. Wide horizons and blurred boundaries: comparative perspectives on adult and lifelong learning 12. Globalisation in Africa: reflecting on Peter Jarvis's superstructure and substructure model 13. Chinese students speak about their favourite teachers and university reform 14. The rise and fall of life-wide learning for adults in England