The Challenges of Researching the Non-Formal Learning Sector

Abstract This section offers an overview of the scope, range, and reach of the organizations that comprise what should be thought of as a sector or field in the three cities of London, Toronto, and Vancouver. The section provides an explanation of how the authors imagined, found, and excavated these organizations over a period of time since the 1990s to compare and contrast them as a data set. It then offers a synoptic overview of the organizations as a city-by-city story, followed by an attempt to change perspective. Rather than viewing the organizations from a top-down scholarly gaze, explanations from young people’s points of view are presented regarding why they might be interested in attending these organizations, what participation might mean for them—in general, to give some sense of what the point of the experience might be from viewpoints other than those of the funders, leaders, and policymakers.