Diverse views on citizenship, community and participation:Exploring the role of adult education research and practice

In this article, we look at three photographs that each (re)present a space of citizenshipand community. In examining each photo, we question our assumptions about adulteducation and community building practices. In each of the three cases, we adopt thesame approach. We start by focusing on a particular place where present-daycitizenship nowadays takes shape and observing what is to be seen at this location. Thisobservation forces us to view that particular place in sharp focus and to direct ourattention to the specific citizenship practice emerging there. This is an exercise inpaying attention, which helps us to take notice of the singular way in which citizenshipand community play a role in that particular context. In line with this, we also formulatesome critical observations regarding a number of mainstream concepts in policydiscourse such as social cohesion, active citizenship, lifelong learning, etc. These termsoften represent programmes that close off the space in which an original contribution toadult education can be developed rather than opening it up. In analyzing these threeimages, we do not aim to construct a fully-fledged theoretical framework nor to developa method. Rather, we wish to open the possibility of seeing things differently andaltering our way of thinking.