ABSTRACT
This chapter examines connections between the recent development of men’s sheds in community settings in Australia, adult and community learning and public policy. It discusses some factors that have led to the proliferation of community-based sheds as centres for informal learning, to a point that they have become a part of public policy discourses, particularly related to older men’s learning and wellbeing in Australia. With men’s sheds spreading also in New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom in 2011, it is timely to reflect on some of the factors that have created and shaped what is now described as the men’s shed ‘movement’. These include debates about whether sheds are, or should be, inclusive of all men or exclusive of some women. It leads into a critical examination of the reasons why sheds function for some older men not in paid work. It raises some public policy implications for single-sex and gendered adult learning places and spaces, particularly beyond the workplace for older men.
