This book examines one British university continuing education department's involvement with those adults who are most on the margins of formal education. The following are among the topics considered in Chapters 1-9: the wider political context of university continuing education and the emerging political agenda for widening participation in postcompulsory education; factors determining which types of knowledge and learning are worthwhile; struggles within universities to change the types of programs and services offered; institutional positions regarding exclusion and inclusion and the power of universities' community staff to change the existing system; the creation of social exclusion; strategies for combating social exclusion based on being inclusive about difference; and the impact of educational and other institutions (such as the family) on the evolution of individual subjectivities and identities. Interwoven throughout Chapters 1-9 are the personal narratives of 30 community learners from diverse backgrounds who explain how their respective education systems and social expectations "pigeon-holed" them and their learning throughout their lives. The case for challenging current practices in university continuing education is reviewed in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 offers some examples for change that maintain the existing spirit of higher education but within a different value system. (Contains 233 references.) (MN)