Lifeplace learning and research

Why is "Lifeplace" trademarked?

You may be familiar with two similar terms "lifelong learning" and "workplace learning". Lifelong learning was originally meant to describe the learning that adults do throughout their lives for many purposes. Over time governments have sought to encourage lifelong learning, but in doing so they have also intend to promote lifelong learning agendas that focus on staying in the workforce and training. The term "lifelong learning" has become almost unusable for the many informal learning purposes adults might prefer to consider. Employers in many fields have caught on to lifelong learning, sometimes encouraging employees to use unpaid hours with learning for career advancement. There is a desperation in the Global North and other developing economies, that the current economics and material productivity must prevail. 'Workplace learning' the other term makes the workplace the centre of learning. It can readily be presumed that for many employers, other than perhaps the most innovative ones, this learning is focussed on how to be more productive, for the employer and shareholders.

Lifeplace learning has another agenda; it is to focus attention squarely on quality of life and the place or environments in which it can be achieved. This may involve workplaces, and it is certainly adult education as well as education for younger people, but it does not hold that either production or profitability are key goals in a happy enjoyable life. It provides critical focus on the places in which life should be lived, including the living environment, and the amount of work, celebration and recreation necessary for a good life. Trademarking the word "Lifeplace" has protected the concept of lifeplace as central to ecological and human development. It prevents its systematic take over by those who might be politically motivated to persuade us that life is not what it should be, and that we should really support their political objectives or hidden agendas for our lives.

The license to use "Lifeplace" is granted on the basis that the trademark is acknowledged and that it refers to initiatives that are lifeplace centred. For example:

• Lifeplace learning could include learning to do less with less as opposed to doing more with less.
• Lifeplace research is looking into how people learn to live as part of their surrounding ecology.
• Lifeplace fine arts are the visual arts of people who eschew elite consumption, focusing on the aesthetic and celebration Creation, ecology and being in place.

Lifeplace is a trademark of Art & Learning Networks, Australia.

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