ABSTRACT
M a n y metaphor s hav e been employe d in recent time s to describe con tempo -
rary society, such as the ' in format io n society' (Archer 1990, amongst others) ,
'knowledge society ' (Steh r 1994) , ' pos tmoder n society ' (Lyotar d 1984 ,
amongst others ) an d th e ' learnin g society' . Metaphors see k t o describe , o r
illustrate, a p h e n o m e n on - ofte n b y one o r othe r o f its salien t features . T h e
idea o f the learnin g society ha s becom e almos t take n fo r grante d i n a ver y
short spac e o f t im e an d a mul t i tude o f publicat ion s hav e appeare d assumin g
the metapho r t o b e a reality . The re ar e a fe w scholars , however , w h o hav e
endeavoured t o prob e beneat h th e surfac e an d as k more fundamenta l ques -
tions abou t thi s concept ; a b r i e f pape r b y Edward s (1995 ) embarke d u p o n
this process an d thi s paper fol low s a s imi lar approach t o th e learnin g society,
a l though th e typolog y discussed her e i s different f ro m hi s an d wa s reache d
independent ly o f his work .
