Informal civic learning through engagement in local democracy: The case of the seniors' task force of healthy City Toronto

This chapter explores the dimensions of informal civic learning of a local democracy initiative known as Healthy City Toronto (HCT). It examines one of the programmes of HCT, the Seniors' Task Force, particularly the content and process of the participants' learning. This study is part of an international research project that explores the pedagogical dimension of participatory democracy, with a focus on the informal learning acquired by citizens in programmes of shared decision making at the level of municipal government. It attempts to shed light on these issues by addressing three areas that are relatively underrepresented in the research on citizenship education: adult populations, informal learning and local democracy.