Learning with dignity: a Capability approach to Church language cafés as spaces of holistic language learning and social well-being

This study aims to challenge dominant, efficiency-driven approaches to migrant language learning by foregrounding the under-researched phenomenon of Church Language Cafés (CLCs) in Sweden. It interrogates how these community-rooted spaces create learning conditions that resist labour-market logics and instead foster dignity, belonging, and existential well-being. Drawing on a qualitative ethnographic case study of six CLCs, including participatory observations, informal conversations, seven in-depth interviews and digital artefacts, the analysis follows participants’ spatial movements through these venues to develop a five-part model of core qualities: self-governance, community, study-circle learning, work-life connection, and existential values. Interpreted through the Capability Approach, these qualities reveal how CLCs expand migrants’ social opportunities and challenge the instrumentalism shaping both Swedish and European adult education landscapes. The study ultimately shows that holistic, dignity-centred learning environments are not peripheral supplements but crucial counterpoints to prevailing so-called ‘integration’ frameworks – inviting a rethinking of what meaningful language learning could entail.