Author Description

The term "cooperative and mutual enterprises" (CMEs) was developed in 1999 by a mutuality task force in Oxfordshire, England, as a modern way of reasserting the notion of the adult education movement as a cooperative movement for social (democratic) inclusion. CMEs recall the tradition of learning through clubs, unions, mechanics' institutes, and evening classes. The tradition was epitomized in mutual improvement societies. The structures in the Learning and Skills Council "Prospectus" and in the Learning and Skills Act have hardened since the arrangements proposed in the policy paper "Learning to Succeed" and now run the risk of being so top-down that they will necessitate arrangements that are more cooperative and more mutual. The term "organic learning" has been developed as a label for what cooperative and mutual enterprise could do for and with the new structures proposed for adult and lifelong learning. The term is intended to contest the separation between learning and "real life" and to connect with the term "organic intellectuals" that was favored by 1970s new social movements and new cooperators. Eighteen specific proposals for action by policymakers were proposed to meet the increased demand for organic learning opportunities described by such familiar terms as informal, flexible, learner-driven, vocational, lifelong, accountable, and partnership. (MN)