Designing learning as a transitional space The main argument in this book so far has been that, rather than ‘thinking’ learning space around the binary formal/informal divide, we should examine both the distinctive characteristics of learning (and teaching, research, student-support, etc.) in post-compulsory education, and also what it is that matters about space. It has been shown that learning is articulated in contemporary educational theory as a transitional and liminal space, where participants negotiate their way via particular boundary conditions and specifi c social and spatial practices and repertoires. It has been suggested that space is not so much a metaphorical expression or setting for learning, as one of the (many) mechanisms through which contested ideas about what learning is or should be are articulated – both in offering up ‘pictures’ of potential new repertoires, and in ‘making concrete’ the preferred repertoires of particular communities of practice.