Towards global geographies of informal education

This chapter provides a critical review of geographical research on informal education. We trace how understandings of informal education have been enriched in recent years through geographical concepts and original research. We use this chapter to call on geographers to move from what have tended to be isolated studies of informal education in a national context – whether in the global North (predominantly) or the global South – towards a richer, fuller consideration of the inter-relations, flows and global mobilities of informal education. We believe there is much to gain from considering the connections, distinctions and interplay between informal learning across global South and global North contexts. To demonstrate this argument, we draw on examples that outline some possible future pathways, including emerging digital geographies of informal education, the entrenchment of privileged global mobilities, and new constellations of global institutions and networks.