This chapter begins by questioning the narrow definition of learning used in much present writing concerning lifelong learning, which tends to focus on the purported economic and societal benefits of prolonging and widening participation in formal education and training programmes. In contrast, much valuable and non-trivial learning already goes on, and has always gone on, outside formal programmes of instruction. This is true both at work (Fevre et al, 2000) and in leisure (Gorard et al, 1999d). If such informal learning continues to be ignored by proponents of a learning society, then the result may be an unnecessary exclusiveness in definitions of a learning society, and an unjustifiable reliance on certification.

An individual's position within the social-structure of the determinants of participation, described in Chapters Four to Six – the objective opportunities available to particular social groups at particular places and times – is located chiefly by their personal characteristics such as age, gender, and family background. A 1982 ACACE (Advisory Council for Adult Continuing Education) survey suggested that the ability to take up opportunities was affected by personal motivation and individual circumstance, as well as by individuals’ knowledge of and the availability of learning opportunities (Sargant, 1996). Being a learner has therefore been described as a ‘praxis’ (Mezirow, 1990).

However, at least one other possibility has emerged, as there are some individuals who do not fit our more general theory of early socio-economic determinants, since their will to act comes from a crisis in their later life. Their motivation may be dispositional (Edwards et al, 1993), of the type that tends to be the most underestimated by survey-type methods (Harrison, 1993).

Although many studies have identified a vocational strand of motivation as dominant in participation (for example, NIACE, 1994), this may be as much a product of their focus as of the social reality they portray. By considering only a narrow range of formal learning, such studies may introduce variable-selection bias, making some forms of motivation appear more important by ignoring others, or by offering respondents a choice of reasons from a limited predetermined list.