I spent most of my working life in higher education. For many years, I was the Rank Research Fellow and Tutor at the YMCA George Williams College, London. My focus was on the development of practice within youth work, community education/learning, and, later, social pedagogy. This led, just under thirty years ago, to the establishment of infed.org – and what became the online encyclopaedia of pedagogy and informal education.
Among my books are Creators not Consumers (1980, 1982), Developing Youth Work (1988), Local Education (1994), Informal Education (1996, 1999, 2005 with Tony Jeffs), The Art of Helping Others (2008, with Heather Smith), Youth Work Practice (2010, edited with Tony Jeffs), Journeying Together (2011, edited with Alan Rogers) and Youth Work and Faith (2015, edited with Naomi Stanton and Tom Wylie). [Click for a full listing]. I am currently working on a new book with Tony Jeffs that explores the need to reimagine education.
Educated at the Cavendish School, Hemel Hempstead and Lancaster University (Furness College), I undertook my doctorate at Goldsmiths, University of London.
I have worked in careers advice, youth and community work, and education programmes. The first of the latter was a Department of Education and Science, England (DES) funded developmental project focused on political education. It was based at the National Association of Youth Clubs (1978-81).
A second DES developmental project (1981-85) took me to the YMCA National College. The team’s task was to develop and run a new distance learning programme focused on the professional training of youth and community workers. Thirty-nine years later, in 2020, I left the College. Major reductions in government support for community learning and development, as well as for work with young people, meant the programme and the College were headed for closure. [The College finally shut its doors in 2025].
Other activities have included chairing the Two Towers tenants’ cooperative in Bermondsey (which managed the tower blocks pictured above). I have also been the chair of the Community and Youth Worker’s Union (now part of Unite), served on the editorial board of Youth and Policy and been a Resident Friend at Westminster Quaker Meeting House.
Since 2019, I have lived in a farm cottage close to the village of St Margaret’s Hope, South Ronaldsay (part of the Orkney Islands). While rather different to living in East London, we share some of the same problems, such as fuel poverty and major housing shortages. One of the projects I am involved in is seeking to establish a community-led affordable rental cohousing initiative (Hope Cohousing). If we succeed, it will be the first in the UK.
Another project has focused on encouraging people to engage with the history and experience of living on the island over the last 13,000 years or so (starting in Palaeolithic times) – see Exploring South Ronaldsay.
Opening photograph by Richard Hills
updated: August 26, 2025