Informal Workers and a Political Economy of Lifelong Learning: Provocations from the Margins of Global Capitalism

This book makes an innovative, sociologically informed contribution to academic and policy discussions about informal work, skills and training for lifelong learning (LLL) and the promise of decent work and just transitions for sustainable development. It does so with an explicit focus on challenges and opportunities as they shape informal economies and the experiences of informal workers in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The authors highlight historical and contemporary characteristics of informality in different regions from a political economy of LLL perspective. This political economy approach draws on theories of post- and neo- colonialism, space, place and globalisation, critical accounts of curriculum and pedagogy in skills and vocational education and training. The book will appeal to students and scholars of education, particularly adult education and LLL and technical and vocational education and training, as well as sociology, labour economics, and international and sustainable development.

Seth Brown is Head and Coordinator of UNESCO UNEVOC and Lecturer in the School of Education at RMIT University, Australia. His research contributes to understanding how social and cultural change impacts young people’s health and well-being, and the availability of educational, training and employment pathways.

Peter Kelly is Professor of Education in the School of Education at Deakin University, Australia. His research focuses on young people, their education, training and employment pathways, and their health and well-being, at a time of profound planetary crises at the convergence of the sixth mass extinction and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Scott K. Phillips is Director of Kershaw Phillips Consulting. He works with government and community organisations to understand people’s needs, develop policies and programmes, and facilitate research and evaluation. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor with UNESCO UNEVOC at RMIT University, Australia.