ABSTRACT
This chapter explores democratic Athens as a network of spaces, variously formal and informal, official and unofficial, in which knowledge and the power knowledge brings with it were shared or traded among citizens (and others). By using the analogy at all, the philosopher concedes an important point about citizen learning in Athens. Athens is, obviously, a city of varied expertise, expertise which is variously owned and put to practical use by the whole assortment of its inhabitants, citizen and non-citizen. Texts from democratic Athens tend to confirm the picture that while teachers may sometimes be in loco parentis, parents themselves are not the paradigmatic teachers. Schools were a familiar feature of Greek towns at least by the fifth century; there are certain to have been significant changes in patterns of schooling in Athens during the time of the democracy, but limitations of evidence make them impossible to trace with any confidence.
