ABSTRACT
In the play of this volume, the leading part has been played by the idea of learning ecologies, understood as residing at several levels, from the individual through communities to the national and even to the global level. Significant other characters have been those of ecosystems, education, imagination, transformation and empowerment. Subsidiary parts have included the ideas of human potential, design, innovation, creativity, work and citizenship. Six themes have run throughout, namely that learning ecologies: (i) have blurred boundaries characterised by liminal spaces; (ii) exhibit an interplay of agency and structure; (iii) are entities of fact and value; (iv) are practical in their nature; (v) present challenges and opportunities for higher education; and (vi) offer grounds for pessimism and optimism: both pessimists and optimists can have their day. The upshot is that the idea of learning ecologies summons each member of the human race to the tribunal of affordances. Ultimately, the matter of learning ecologies is a matter of individual, collective and social responsibility.
