Making Sense of the Learning Turn

From "learning toy" and "learning society" to "learning city" and "learning organization", what is meant by "learning"? The main focus of this volume is to increase our understanding of the "learning turn" referring, in this book, to the frequent occurrence and usage of terms in the last few decades where the word "learning" is the premodifier. The authors also offer insights into the use of the word "learning" as a premodifier in the future and discuss what, if anything, may replace it, such as "knowledge" (as in "knowledge management") and "smart" (as in "smart city"). An extensive range of academic disciplines are covered including political science, economics, human geography, philosophy, linguistics, higher education, working life science, management and organization, and marketing. While a single, overall, unified conclusion is not provided, Making Sense of the Learning Turn presents a variety of voices and perspectives. Some contributors are critical towards the learning turn, explaining it in terms of fashion-following, manipulation, and seduction. Others interpret the learning turn more lightly or suggest a more collective form of learning as an alternative to the individualization of learning that some authors argue has been the case thus far.

Anders Örtenblad is Professor of Working Life Science at the University of Agder, Norway. With his keen interest in learning and education, as both phenomena and concepts, he has extensively researched and authored on the idea of the learning organization, organizational learning, and management education. He has edited numerous books and journals, including The Oxford Handbook of the Learning Organization (OUP, 2019) and The Oxford Handbook of Metaphor in Organization Studies (OUP, 2024). He is a keen advocate of research as open, academic debate.

- Foreword - List of Contributors - PART I. THE LEARNING TURN: A BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION - 1: Anders Örtenblad: Toward an Increased Understanding of the Learning Turn: Background and Introduction - 2: Anders Örtenblad: On the Usage of the Premodifier Learning Among Scholars and Practitioners - 3: Bertus van Rooy: Linguistic Modifiers and the Construction of Concept Meaning - PART II. REFLECTING ON LEARNING AND ITS USE AS A PREMODIFIER - 4: Marianna Papastephanou: Learnification, Premodifiers and Learning(s) - 5: Anke Redecker: Recognition in a Learning World - Topics of Global Education - 6: Malcolm Tight: Learning Your Place - 7: Leonard Holmes: What is Learning that an Organization (or Anything Else) Can Do It? - 8: Rob F. Poell: Is Learning Viewed as a Synonym of Training? - PART III. EXAMINING SINGLE TERMS IN WHICH LEARNING IS THE PREMODIFIER - 9: Tyson E. Lewis: "Learning Toys" as Education through Commodification - 10: Norman V. Jackson: The Impossibility of the Learning Organization - 11: Max Visser: Learning Climate - 12: John A. Cotsomitis: The Learning Economy: What do we Mean by the Modifier Learning? - 13: Frederik Hertel and Michelle Wicmandy: The Global Learning Economy - 14: Hans Chr. Garmann Johnsen and Jon P. Knudsen: Can Regions Learn? - 15: Bertus van Rooy and Roosmarijn Rentier: The Meanings of "Learning Organization" from the Perspective of Usage - PART IV. EXAMINING MULTIPLE TERMS IN WHICH LEARNING IS THE PREMODIFIER - 16: Michael Reynolds and Russ Vince: Being Alone Together: A Critical Exploration of Learning in "Learning Group" and "Learning Community" - 17: Philip Cooke: "Fortune Favors the Prepared Mind": Learning Knowledge without Experience is Not so Smart - 18: Anders Örtenblad: Comparing Two Similar Terms in which Learning is the Premodifier: A Study of Seven Term Couples - 19: Anders Örtenblad: Belonging and Being Unique: The Dual Function of the Learning Premodifier - PART V. BEYOND LEARNING: ON ITS WAY TOWARD BEING REPLACED BY OTHER COGNITION-ORIENTED PREMODIFIERS SUCH AS KNOWLEDGE AND SMART - 20: Marianna Papastephanou: Interpreting the Decline in the Common Use of the Learning Premodifier - 21: Anders Örtenblad: Learning City, Knowledge City, Smart City: Three Mountains in the Same Range - Afterword: Reflections on the Learning Premodifier and the Learning Turn