Hardly anyone can have failed to pick up on the recent flurry of stories in the national press about the Big Society, sparked off by Dame Elisabeth Hoodless's remarks that funds for volunteers are disappearing at an alarming rate, and that this is undermining the very idea of a "Big Society". At the same time, under the government's…

This article focuses on the nature of "family learning" programmes in marginalised communities. Such programmes present a series of radical challenges (in the sense of getting to the root of things) to policy makers and professionals alike: about, for instance, the kinds of "learning" on offer and the neglect, perhaps…