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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN
ADULT EDUCATION
AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Europe’s Lifelong
Learning Markets,
Governance and Policy
Using an Instruments Approach

Edited by
Marcella Milana
Gosia Klatt
Sandra Vatrella
Palgrave Studies in Adult Education
and Lifelong Learning

Series Editors
Marcella Milana
Department of Human Sciences
University of Verona
Verona, Italy

John Holford
School of Education
University of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK
This series explores adult education and lifelong learning, emphasising
the tensions between universal models and approaches that value local
cultures, traditions, histories, and mutual understanding between diverse
communities. Contributions to this series will contribute original knowl-
edge and insights in adult education and lifelong learning, based on origi-
nal empirical research and deep theoretical analysis, and stimulate debate
on policy and practice. Books will be geographically broad, drawing on
contributions from within and without the Anglophone world, and
encompass research-based monographs and edited collections, thematic
edited collections addressing key issues in the field, and trenchant over-
views designed to stimulate intellectual debate among wider audiences.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16183
 Marcella Milana • Gosia Klatt
Sandra Vatrella
Editors

Europe’s Lifelong
Learning Markets,
Governance and
Policy
Using an Instruments Approach
Editors
Marcella Milana Gosia Klatt
Department of Human Sciences Melbourne Graduate School of Education
University of Verona University of Melbourne
Verona, Italy Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Sandra Vatrella
Department of Human Sciences
University of Verona
Verona, Italy

ISSN 2524-6313     ISSN 2524-6321 (electronic)

Palgrave Studies in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning
ISBN 978-3-030-38068-7    ISBN 978-3-030-38069-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38069-4

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans-
mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: © Vladislav Mitic / Alamy

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 In memory of Filomena D’Angelis,
born two months before the liberation from the yoke of fascist tyranny,
was pulled out of school to help with the housework,
a peace and local activist, earned her secondary school degree while raising
three children.
She tilted at windmills to follow her dreams,
struggled for economic independence, and
was often defeated by imaginary and real giants.
Not a weakling, but a stubborn, tenacious and passionate woman we loved.
 Foreword

To outsiders, and even to some of its citizens, the European Union is an

enigma. It is one of the world’s great powers, yet it aspires to few if any of
the normal accouterments of great power status: no army, navy, or seat at
the United Nations. It has a parliament and a president, but is not a
nation state. It prides itself on having prevented more of the major wars
that blighted Europe and the world over the half-century before its for-
mation. It claims a heritage of European values and ideas, stretching back
through Grundtvig, Erasmus and Comenius to Aristotle and Plato. It is
managed by institutions, agencies and people who communicate largely –
in practice if not in theory – in the language of a state which promises
shortly to abandon its half-century of membership.
Not least of the EU’s enigmatic features is its making and implement-
ing of policies in areas where its authority to do so is a matter of debate.
Education is a prime case. Formally, the great bulk of policy – and law –
in education is a matter for its 28 member states to decide alone. In
practice, over the last 30 years, since the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, the
Union has become a very active player in this field. This is particularly
true of post-school education: the area referred under such various terms
as adult education and lifelong learning – though in the official terminol-
ogy of the EU, the latter now refers to education at all ages.
All this makes the EU a prime target for academic inquiry by scholars
of educational policy. Perhaps it was because lifelong learning seemed less
vii
viii Foreword

politically sensitive than the education of children that the EU first sig-
nificant educational interventions began in this area. Certainly, it was
more confident about moving into the area of post-initial learning
because it could do so under the banner of economic policy, and it was
under the banner of Growth, competitiveness, employment that its first sub-
stantial white paper appeared (Commission of the European Communities,
1993), shortly followed by one explicitly in the field of education policy
(Commission of the European Communities, 1995). The year 1996 was
declared the European Year of Lifelong Learning.
Since then, the European Union has made remarkable progress. Not
all of it, of course, has been in education: it has grown 12 member
states with a population of 350 millions to 28 and rather more than
half a billion citizens; it has adopted a new currency. But what it has
achieved in educational policy is also remarkable. The formation of a
massive new inter-state organisation, governing – or contributing to
governing – nearly 30 countries has, of course, what President José
Manuel Barroso called ‘the dimension of “empire”’. Like earlier
empires – though, as Borroso was keen to assert, by agreement rather
than imposition – it has sought to establish some kind of order and
regularity on its members.
Many of the EU mechanisms of policy co-ordination are, without
doubt, “world-leading”. It has a well-known penchant for “soft gover-
nance”, and particularly since the inception of the Lisbon Strategy in
2000 it has developed some very elaborate ways of doing so: the Open
Method of Coordination; the European Qualifications Framework;
targets, indicators and benchmarks; not to mention initiatives not
strictly under EU aegis, though very much under its wing, such as the
Bologna process and the European Higher Education Area. They have
had considerable success in shepherding the member states – whose
herd instincts resemble cats’ rather more than sheep’s – along a com-
mon path.
Yet, somehow, despite these achievements, European education hasn’t
delivered as much as its advocates must have hoped. By and large, the
Lisbon targets were not met. For a decade after 2008, European econo-
mies failed to deliver for its people. The values of tolerance and liberal
 Foreword ix

democracy, on which the European Union was founded, are now repudi-
ated by many of its people, and even some of its governments. The once
vaunted European social model now seems to many little more than a
fading memory, valued more in the rhetoric of social inclusion than in
policy or welfare practice.
What has gone awry? This fascinating book is the product of research
by a consortium, the ENLIVEN project, drawn from across the
European Union – and the world – that has investigated this central
problem for three years. The focus of this book, the influence of
European governance and policy coordination on Europe’s lifelong
learning markets, is only one aspect of ENLIVEN’s work. In other areas
it has thrown new light on issues such as young adults’ learning at work,
on who takes part in adult learning and why, on different ways in which
social inequality is expressed, constructed as a policy goal and legiti-
mized and on what makes it harder or easier for ‘excluded’ or ‘margin-
alised’ people to benefit from our current provision of adult education.
Working with computer scientists, we have developed an Intelligent
Decision Support System, exploring how that can contribute to improv-
ing policy and practice.
But clearly, for any multi-state organisation, the questions of how poli-
cies are made, of how they play out in Europe’s highly complex political,
social and economic arenas and of who exercises influence – and who does
not – are critical. The contributions to this book offer important new evi-
dence, and the collaboration between the members of the team has gener-
ated new theoretical insight. Although the authors look at the EU with an
inquisitive and critical eye, it is worth reflecting that our work has been
supported by – indeed, could only have taken place with the support of –
the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research programme.

Nottingham, UK John Holford

x Foreword

References
Commission of the European Communities. (1993). Growth, Competitiveness,
Employment: The Challenges and Ways Forward into the 21st Century
(White Paper). Bulletin of the European Communities Supplement 6/93 (Vol.
COM(93) 700). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities.
Commission of the European Communities. (1995). Teaching and Learning –
Towards the Learning Society (White Paper on Education and Training)
(Vol. com95_590). Brussels: Commission of the European Communities.
 Preface

The main aim of this edited collection is to clarify how European gover-
nance, specifically policy coordination, facilitates domestic adaptation of
Europe’s lifelong learning markets. This is done by examining the way
governance mechanisms and policy instruments employed by the institu-
tions of the European Union (EU) intervene in lifelong learning markets,
at both European and national levels.
The backdrop for this book is that, in the wake of the 2009 global
financial crisis and great recession, the EU has wiped former progress, as
demonstrated by the worst growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
since the 1930s, a drawback in industrial production and unemployment
levels to those of the 1990s, and an unprecedented increase in both youth
unemployment levels and the percentage of 15–34-year-old European
citizens that are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs).
For all these reasons, the European strategy for growth, Europe 2020,
aimed at boosting a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, not least
through high employment and social and territorial cohesion. However,
three important features accompanied the implementation of Europe
2020: First, policy coordination within the Union has been strengthened
thanks to various complex intergovernmental policies agreed among the
EU institutions and member states. Second, traditionally distinct policy
fields (i.e., youth education, adult education, labour market) now present
less idiosyncratic boundaries. Third, lifelong learning has further
xi
xii Preface

developed into a significant education space where “new European mean-

ings in education are constructed” (Lawn, 2002, p. 5 cited in: Holford,
2008). In this space, the adult education component of lifelong learning
markets, conventionally a second chance for adults to first enter educa-
tion later in life, has increasingly assumed the function of either a school
recovery or an upskilling opportunity for the younger generations, in as
much as the older ones, to compensate for education failures (e.g., high
drop-out rates, poor learning outcomes), labour market failures (e.g.,
lack of employment opportunities) or both (e.g., skills mismatches)
(Milana, 2017). Along these developments, lifelong learning in the EU
has turned primarily economistic and focused on competitiveness
(Holford, 2008), yet, from a market perspective, different logics may
substantiate policy (and EU policy) interventions on lifelong learning
markets.
Against this backdrop, the prospects and arrangements in Europe’s
lifelong learning markets following the 2009 global financial crisis, and
consequent strengthening of policy coordination at EU level, the blur-
ring of boundaries between policy fields and the redefinition of the func-
tion of the adult education component of lifelong learning, have received
rare in-depth attention.
This book aims to contribute knowledge to fill in this gap. It acknowl-
edges that in recent decades, changes in the role, meanings and place of
adult education in Europe’s lifelong learning markets have not been inde-
pendent from at least three trends in global governance. The first is the
evolution of transnational and supranational governance, capturing,
respectively, what outspreads or operates across national boundaries and
what has an influence or power that outdoes national boundaries or gov-
ernments (cf. Kohler-Koch & Rittberger, 2006; Sabel & Zeitlin, 2010).
The second trend refers to the growth of network governance (cf. Rhodes,
1997). Finally, the third trend deals with the expansion of data gover-
nance (cf. Lawn, 2013; Ozga, 2009, 2012).
For a long time, the study of the domestic implementation of the Union’s
education policy has been considered the most appropriate way to explain
country convergence (i.e., the consequence of integration within the
Union), policy transfer (i.e., policy learning, see Lange & Alexiadou,
2010), policy harmonisation (i.e., the adjustment of differences in
 Preface xiii

support of the Union’s integration) or their failures. Yet, to better capture

“the formation of economic and/or political linkages among countries
that are geographically near to each other” (Graziano & Vink, 2008,
pp. 7–8) the concept of domestic implementation has been replaced in
European studies by that of domestic adaptation to European regional
integration.
Along this line of reasoning, the domestic adaptation of Europe’s life-
long learning markets uncovers the indirect and direct effects of European
governance and policy-making that exert pressure on member states
towards European regional integration. Among the indirect effects is
increased cooperation through policy coordination, to improve the
exchange of information and mutual-learning among, and well beyond,
executive governments. Among the direct effects is the adaptation at
domestic level of European regulatory frameworks, like the Upskilling
Pathways targeting adults or the Youth Guarantee targeting youths and
young adults. This book takes domestic adaptation processes seriously.
Following an introductory chapter (Chap. 1: An Instruments Approach
to European Governance in Education) that outlines our approach, Part I
(European Governance and Policy Coordination) covers the development
of EU-wide policies in education, by concentrating attention on the gov-
ernance mechanisms and policy instruments through which policy coor-
dination occurs within the EU; then Part II (Youth Guarantee and Its
Domestic Adaptation) trails the enactment of EU policy in a pool of mem-
ber states, by restricting attention on Youth Guarantee.
Part I comprises six chapters (Chaps. 2–7). The first three provide the
analysis of the evolution of transnational and supranational governance,
through close-up examinations of three policy mixes, or complex intergov-
ernmental, multi-sectoral policies established at European level, each
involving multiple policy goals, and the “instrumentation” used to
achieve EU policy coordination and domestic adaptation in the member
states. Chapter 2 deals with the Education and Training 2020 (ET 2020)
strategic framework, Chap. 3 focuses on the Renewed European Agenda on
Adult Learning, finally Chap. 4 pays attention to the European Youth
Strategy. Through an examination of the development and working mode
of each policy mix, these chapters identify several governance mecha-
nisms utilised within those policy mixes, and related policy instruments
xiv Preface

used to coordinate EU policy-making in education. In so doing, they

tease out some implications for the structuration and/or regulation of
adult education markets.
Chapter 5 acknowledges that policy coordination within the Union
has been strengthened through the codification of the European Semester,
in the wake of the 2009 global financial crisis. This chapter illustrates the
formation of the European Semester as a new governance architecture that
aims at attaining the strategic objectives set in Europe 2020 regarding
employment, social inclusion, research and innovation, education, energy
and climate change, but consistently with the macro-fiscal constrains set
by the Union’s Stability and Growth Pact. Accordingly, all member states’
macroeconomic policies are put under yearly scrutiny and EU institu-
tions issue Country-Specific Recommendations that increasingly relate to
general education, skills and lifelong learning. Hence, focusing on the
European Semester’s push and pulling mechanisms, the chapter argues
these have spillover effects also on Europe’s lifelong learning markets.
Chapter 6 acknowledges also the growth in data governance, through
the increasing use of indicators, benchmarking and taxonomies in educa-
tion, and its impact on European governance. This chapter considers the
evolution of the relationships between science, data and policy, and
reviews how ‘indicators’ for lifelong learning policy have evolved within
the Union under the Renewed European Agenda on Adult Learning, the
Education and Training 2020, the European Youth Strategy and, more
recently, under the European Semester as well.
Part I ends with Chap. 7, which presents the Upskilling Pathways: New
Opportunities for Adults, adopted by the Council of the European Union
in December 2016 as a response to the skills crisis across Europe, target-
ing adults over 25 who may be in employment, or unemployed or eco-
nomically inactive. By acknowledging that domestic adaptation of the
Upskilling Pathways can be funded through diverse funding streams, par-
ticularly the European Social Fund (ESF), this chapter reviews the
approaches adopted by different member states. Such variety is exempli-
fied through three case studies covering Northern Europe (the United
Kingdom), Eastern Europe (Slovakia) and Southern Europe (Italy).
Part II of this book comprises 11 chapters (Chaps. 9–18). Chapter 9
presents the Youth Guarantee (YG), endorsed by the European Council
 Preface xv

in 2013 to provide young people under 25 years of age, living in the

member states, with the guarantee of a job or a learning or training solu-
tion within four months after they have become unemployed or have left
formal education. YG is an active labour market policy that aims at tack-
ling youth unemployment by including several aspects of adult education
markets, while, at the same time, offering a platform for fighting against
poverty. Hereby, it is acknowledged that education is important for
labour market success and social inclusion. This chapter outlines how YG
came about and the kind of EU financial support member states receive
for its implementation within own territories.
Chapters 9–17 provide country-based studies of the domestic adapta-
tion to YG in nine EU member states (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom).
These studies enable our understanding of how the YG influence policies
and approaches taken by national and sub-national public and regulatory
agencies.
Chapter 18 applies a Welfare Regime framework to further examine
the processes of domestic adaptation to the Youth Guarantee (YG) in
Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, Spain and
the United Kingdom. It connects the evidences from Chaps. 9–17 to
selected Welfare State Regimes’ (WSRs) characteristics, covering also
adult education. The results point at features in the domestic adaptation
to the YG as not independent from WSRs, but also at the missed oppor-
tunity, across WSRs, of seeing this policy instrument as connected to
adult education in facing the educational concerns of young adults.
Overall Part II brings to the fore the extent to which regulatory politics
and wealth redistribution within the EU may or may not affect national
developments of lifelong learning markets, and their adult education seg-
ments, in member states.
The concluding chapter (Chap. 19) brings together the significant
findings from this book that point at the different ways in which European
governance influences lifelong learning markets, and particularly their
adult education segments, at both European and national level.
Finally, we acknowledge that this book reports on research undertaken
under the project “Encouraging Lifelong Learning for an Inclusive and
Vibrant Europe” (ENLIVEN), which has received funding from the
xvi Preface

European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

under grant agreement no. 693989. However, the views expressed here
are, of course, the sole responsibility of the authors involved.

Verona, Italy Marcella Milana

Melbourne, Australia  Gosia Klatt
Verona, Italy  Sandra Vatrella

References
Graziano, P., & Vink, M. P. (2006). Europeanization. New Research Agendas.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Holford, J. (2008). Explaining European Union Lifelong Learning Policy:
Globalisation and Competitiveness or Path Dependency and Citizenship?
Adult Education Research Conference. St. Louis, MO. Retrieved from http://
newprairiepress.org/aerc/2008/papers/26
Kohler-Koch, B., & Rittberger, B. (2006). Review Article: The ‘Governance
Turn’ in EU Studies. Journal of Common Market Studies, 44(s1), 27–49.
Lange, B., & Alexiadou, N. (2010). Policy Learning and Governance of
Education Policy in the EU. Journal of Education Policy, 25(4), 443–463.
Lawn, M. (2002). A European Research Area? European Educational Research
Journal, 1(1), 139–140.
Lawn, M. (2013). The Rise of Data in Education. In M. Lawn (Ed.), The Rise of
Data in Education Systems: Collection, Visualization and Use (pp. 7–25).
Oxford: Symposium.
Milana, M. (2017). Global Networks, Local Actions: Rethinking Adult Education
Policy in the 21st. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon and New York, NY:
Routledge.
Ozga, J. (2009). Governing Education Through Data in England: From
Regulation to Self-Evaluation. Journal of Education Policy, 24(2), 149–162.
Ozga, J. (2012). Governing Knowledge: Data, Inspection and Education Policy
in Europe. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 10(4), 439–455.
Sabel, C., & Zeitlin, J. (2010). Experimentalist Governance in the European
Union: Towards a New Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rhodes, R. A. W. (1997). Understanding Governance. Policy Networks, Governance,
Reflexivity and Accountability. Buckingham: Open University Press.
 Acknowledgements

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon
2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement
No 693989.

xvii
xxxii Abbreviations

EAEA European Association for the Education of Adults

EAFRD European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
EaSI Europe Programme for Employment and Social Innovation
EC European Commission
ECOFIN Economic and Financial Affairs Council
ED Employment Department (Estonia)
EDP Excessive Deficit Procedure
EEC Estonian Employers’ Confederation
EESC European Economic and Social Committee
EG Employment Guidelines
EIP Excessive Imbalance Procedure
EMCO European Employment Committee
EMFF European Maritime and Fisheries Fund
EMU Economic and Monetary Union
EOI School of Industrial Organisation (Spain)
EP European Parliament
EPSCO Employment and Social Affairs Council
EQF European Qualifications Framework
ERDF European Regional Development Fund
ESF European Social Fund
ESFA Education Skills and Funding Agency
ESIF European Structural and Investment Funds
ESL Early school leavers
ET 2010 Education and Training 2010
ET 2020 Education and Training 2020
ETF European Training Foundation
EU European Union
EUIF Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund
EYF European Youth Forum
EYWC Estonian Youth Work Centre
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
FEAD Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived
FTEs full-time equivalents
GDP Gross Domestic Product
ICT Information and Communications Technology
IG Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs
INNOVE Estonian National Resource Centre for Guidance
ISFOL Italian Institute for workers’ training
Another random document with
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line the paragaster as fast as its original covering of choanocytes
retreats into the newly formed chambers.

Fig. 81.—S. setosum. Young Sponge, with one whorl of radial tubes. o, Osculum;
p, pore; sp1, monaxon; sp4, quadriradiate spicule. (After Maas.)

With a canal system precisely similar to that of Sycon, Ute (Fig. 83)
shows an advance in structure in the thickening of the dermal layers
over the distal ends of the chambers. The dermal thickenings above
neighbouring chambers extend laterally and meet; and there results
a sheet of dermal tissue perforated by dermal ostia, which open into
the inhalant canals, and strengthened by stout spicules running
longitudinally. This layer is termed a cortex; it covers the whole
sponge, compacting the radial tubes so that they form, together with
the cortex, a secondary wall to the sponge, which is once more a
simple sac, but with a complex wall. The cortex may be enormously
developed, so as to form more than half the thickness of the wall
(Fig. 84). The chambers taken together are spoken of as the
chamber layer.
Fig. 82.—Sycon raphanus. A, Longitudinal section of young decalcified Sponge
at a stage somewhat later than that shown in Fig. 81. B, Transverse section
of the same through a whorl of tubes. d, Dermal membrane; g, gastral
membrane; H, paragaster; sp4, tetraradiate spicule; T, radial tube. (After
Maas.)
 Fig. 83.—Transverse section of the body-wall of Ute, passing longitudinally
through two chambers. a.p, Apopyle; d.o, dermal ostium; fl.ch, flagellated
chamber or radial tube; i.c, inhalant canal; p, prosopyle. (After Dendy.)

We have already alluded to the resemblance between a young

Ascon person and a radial tube of Sycon—a comparison which calls
to mind the somewhat strange view of certain earlier authors, that
the flagellated chambers are really the sponge individuals. If now we
suppose each Ascon-like radial tube of Sycon to undergo that same
process of growth by which the Sycon itself was derived from the
Ascon, we shall then have a sponge with a canal system of the type
seen in Leucandra among British forms, but more diagrammatically
shown in the foreign genus Leucilla (Fig. 85). The foregoing remarks
do not pretend to give an account of the transition from Sycon to
Leucilla as it occurred in phylogeny. For some indication of this we
must await embryological research.

In Leucandra the fundamental structure is obscured by the

irregularity of its canal system. It shows a further and most important
difference from Leucilla in the smaller size and rounded form of its
chambers. This change of form marks an advance in efficiency; for
now the flagella converge to a centre, so that they all act on the
same drop of water, while in the tubular chamber their action is more
widely distributed and proportionately less intense (see p. 236).
 Fig. 84.—Transverse section through the body-wall of Grantiopsis. d.o, Dermal
ostium; fl.ch, flagellated chamber; i.c, long incurrent canal traversing the
thick cortex to reach the chamber layer; p, apopyle. (After Dendy.)

Fig. 85.—Transverse section through the body-wall of Leucilla. d.o, Dermal

ostium; ex.c, exhalant canal; fl.ch, chamber; i.c, inhalant canal. (After
Dendy.)

Above are described three main types of canal system—that of

Homocoela, of Sycon, and of Leucandra and Leucilla. These are
conveniently termed the first, second, and third types respectively,
and may be briefly described as related to one another somewhat in
the same way as a scape, umbel, and compound umbel among
inflorescences. These types formed the basis of Haeckel's famous
classification.[221] It has, however, been concluded[222] that the
skeleton is a safer guide in taxonomy, at any rate for the smaller
subdivisions; and in modern classifications genera with canal
systems of the third type will be found distributed among various
families; while in the Grantiidae, Ute and Leucandra stand side by
side. This treatment implies a belief that the third type of canal
system has been independently and repeatedly evolved within the
Calcarea—an example of a phenomenon, homoplasy, strikingly
displayed throughout the group. It is, remarkably enough, the case
that all the canal systems found in the remainder of the Porifera are
more or less modified forms of one or other of the second two types
of canal system above described.

The families Grantiidae, Heteropidae, and Amphoriscidae, all

possessing a dermal cortex, are distinguished as follows:—The
Grantiidae by the absence of subdermal sagittal triradiate spicules
and of conspicuous subgastral quadriradiates; the Heteropidae by
the presence of sagittal triradiates; the Amphoriscidae by the
presence of conspicuous subgastral quadriradiates.

Two families of Calcarea, possibly allied, remain for special mention

—the Pharetronidae, a family rich in genera, and containing almost
all the fossil forms of the group, and the Astroscleridae.

The Pharetronidae are with one, or perhaps two exceptions, fossil

forms, having in common the arrangement of the spicules of their
main skeletal framework in fibres. The family is divided into two sub-
families:—

I. Dialytinae.—The spicules are not fused to one another; the exact

mode of their union into fibres is unknown, but an organic cement
may be present.

Lelapia australis, a recent species, should probably be placed here

as the sole living representative. Dendy has shown[223] that this
remarkable species has a skeleton of the same fibrous character as
is found in typical Dialytinae, and that the triradiate spicules in the
fibres undergo a modification into the "tuning-fork" type (Fig. 86, C),
to enable them to be compacted into smooth fibres. "Tuning-forks,"
though not exclusively confined to Pharetronids, are yet very
characteristic of them.
 Fig. 86.—Portions of the skeleton of Petrostroma schulzei. A, Framework with
ensheathing pellicle; B, quadriradiate spicules with laterally fused rays; C, a
"tuning-fork." (After Doederlein.)

II. Lithoninae.—The main skeletal framework is formed of spicules

fused together, and is covered by a cortex containing free spicules.

Fig. 87.—A spicule from the skeleton framework of Plectroninia, showing the
terminally expanded rays. (After Hinde.)

The sub-family contains only one living genus and a few recently
described fossil forms. Petrostroma schulzei[224] lives in shallow
water near Japan; Plectroninia halli[225] and Bactronella were found
in Eocene beds of Victoria; Porosphaera[226] long known from the
Chalk of England and of the Continent, has recently been shown by
Hinde[226] to be nearly allied to Plectroninia; finally, Plectinia[227] is a
genus erected by Počta for a sponge from Cenomanian beds of
Bohemia. Doederlein, in 1896, expressed his opinion that fossil
representatives of Lithoninae would most surely be discovered. The
fused spicules are equiangular quadriradiates; they are united in
Petrostroma by lateral fusion of the rays, in Plectroninia (Fig. 87) and
Porosphaera by fusion of apposed terminal flat expansions of the
rays, and in some, possibly all, genera a continuous deposit of
calcium carbonate ensheaths the spicular reticulum. Thus they recall
the formation of the skeleton on the one hand of the Lithistida and on
the other of the Dictyonine Hexactinellida (see pp. 202, 211).
"Tuning-forks" may occur in the dermal membrane.

Fig. 88.—Astrosclera willeyana, Lister. A, the Sponge, × about 3. p, The ostia on

its distal surface. B, a portion of the skeleton showing four polyhedra with
radiating crystalline fibres. C, an ostium; the surrounding tissue contains
young stages of polyhedra. (After Lister.)

The Astroscleridae, as known at present, contain a single genus

and species, apparently the most isolated in the phylum. Astrosclera
willeyana[228] was brought back from the Loyalty Islands, and from
Funafuti of the Ellice group. Its skeleton is both chemically and
structurally aberrant. In other Calcarea the calcium carbonate of the
skeleton is present as calcite, in Astrosclera as aragonite, and the
elements are solid polyhedra, united by their surfaces to the total
exclusion of soft parts (Fig. 88). Each element consists of crystalline
fibres radially disposed around a few central granules, and
terminating peripherally in contact with the fibres of adjacent
elements. Young polyhedra are to be found free in the soft parts at
the surface. The chambers are exceptionally minute, especially for a
calcareous sponge, comparing with those of other sponges as
follows:—

Astrosclera chambers, 10µ × 8µ to 18µ × 11µ.

Smallest chambers in Silicea, 15µ × 18µ to 24µ × 31µ.
Smallest chambers in Calcarea, 60µ × 40µ.
In its outward form Astrosclera resembles certain Pharetronids. The
minute dimensions of the ciliated chambers relegate Astrosclera to
the Micromastictora, and the fortunate fact that the calcium
carbonate of its skeleton possesses the mineral characters not of
calcite, but of aragonite, renders it less difficult to conceive that its
relations may be rather with the non-calcareous than the calcareous
sponges.

BRANCH II. MICROMASTICTORA

All sponges which do not possess calcareous skeletons are
characterised by choanocytes, which, when compared with those of
Calcarea, are conspicuous for their smaller size. The great majority
(Silicispongiae) of the non-calcareous sponges either secrete
siliceous skeletons or are connected with siliceous sponges by a
nicely graded series of forms. The small remainder are entirely
askeletal. All these non-calcareous sponges are included, under the
title Micromastictora, in a natural group, opposed to the
Megamastictora as of equal value.

The subdivision of the Micromastictora is a matter of some difficulty.

The Hexactinellida alone are a well circumscribed group. After their
separation there remains, besides the askeletal genera, an
assemblage of forms, the Demospongiae, which fall into two main
tribes. These betray their relationship by series of intermediate
types, but a clue is wanting which shall determine decisively the
direction in which the series are to be read. The askeletal genera are
the crux of the systematist. It is perhaps safest, while recognising
that many of them bear a likeness of one kind or another to various
Micromastictora, to retain them together in a temporary class, the
Myxospongiae.

CLASS I. MYXOSPONGIAE
The class Myxospongiae is a purely artificial one, containing widely
divergent forms, which possess a common negative character,
namely, the absence of a skeleton. As a result of this absence they
are all encrusting in habit.

One genus, Hexadella, has been regarded by its discoverer

Topsent[229] as an Hexactinellid. The same authority places
Oscarella with the Tetractinellida; it is more difficult to suggest the
direction in which we are to seek the relations of the remaining type,
Halisarca.

Hexadella, from the coast of France, is a remarkable little rose-

coloured or bright yellow sponge, with large sac-like flagellated
chambers and a very lacunar ectosome.

Oscarella is a brightly coloured sponge, with a characteristic velvety

surface; it is a British genus, but by no means confined to our
shores. Its canal system has been described by some authors as
diplodal, by others as eurypylous. Topsent[230] has shown, and we
can confirm his statement, that though the chambers have usually
the narrow afferent and efferent ductules of a diplodal system, yet
since each one may communicate with two or three canals, the canal
system cannot be described as diplodal. The hypophare attains a
great development, and in it the generative products mature. The
pinacocytes, like those of Plakinidae, and perhaps of Aplysilla, are
flagellated.

Halisarca, also British, is easily distinguished from Oscarella by the

presence of a mucus-like secretion which oozes from it, and by the
absence of the bright coloration characteristic of Oscarella. It
naturally suggests itself that the coloration in the one case and the
secretion in the other are protective, and in this respect perform one
of the functions of the skeleton of other sponges. The chambers are
long, tubular, and branched. There is no hypophare.
 CLASS II. HEXACTINELLIDA[231]
Silicispongiae, defined by their spicules, of which the rays lie along
three rectangular axes. The canal system is simple, with thimble-
shaped chambers. The body-wall is divided into endosome,
ectosome, and choanosome.

Some authors would elevate the Hexactinellida to the position of a

third main sub-group of Porifera, thus separating them from other
siliceous sponges. In considering this view it is important to realise at
the outset that they are deep-water forms. They bear evident traces
of the influence of their habitat, and like others of the colonists of the
deep sea, are impressed with marked archaic features. Yet they are
still bound to other Micromastictora, first by the small size of their
choanocytes, and secondly by the presence of siliceous spicules.
This second character is really a double link, for it involves not
merely the presence of silica in the skeleton, but also the presence
in each spicule of a well-marked axial filament. Now this axial
filament is a structure which is gaining in importance, for purposes of
classification, in proportion as its absence in Calcarea is becoming
more probable. The Hexactinellida are the only sponges, other than
the bath sponge, which are at all generally known. They have won
recognition by their beauty, as the bath sponge by its utility, and, like
it, one of their number—the Venus's Flower-Basket—forms an
important article of commerce, the chief fishery being in the
Philippine Islands. This wonderful beauty belongs to the skeleton,
and is greatly concealed when the soft parts are present.

We have said that the Hexactinellids are deep-sea forms; they are
either directly fixed to the bottom or more often moored in the ooze
by long tufts of rooting spicules. In the "glass-rope sponge," the
rooting tuft of long spicules, looking like a bundle of spun glass, is
valued by the Japanese, who export it to us. In Monorhaphis the
rooting tuft is replaced by a single giant spicule,[232] three metres in
length, and described as "of the thickness of a little finger"! Probably
it is as a result of their fixed life in the calm waters of the deep
sea[233] that Hexactinellids contrast with most other sponges by their
symmetry. It should not, however, be forgotten that many of the
Calcarea which inhabit shallow water exhibit almost as perfect a
symmetry.

Fig. 89.—Longitudinal section of a young specimen of Lanuginella pupa O.S.,

with commencing formation of the oscular area. × 35. d.m, Dermal
membrane; g.m, gastral membrane; pg, paragaster; sd.tr, subdermal
trabeculae; Sg.tr, subgastral trabeculae. (After F. E. Schulze.)

The structure of the body-wall in Hexactinellida is so constant as to

make it possible to give a general description applicable to all
members of the group. It is of considerable thickness, but a large
part is occupied by empty spaces, for the actual tissue is present in
minimum quantity. In the wall the chamber-layer is suspended by
trabeculae of soft tissue, between a dermal membrane on the
outside and a similar gastral membrane on the inner side (Fig. 89).
Thus the water entering the chambers through their numerous pores
has first passed through the ostia in the dermal membrane and
traversed the subdermal trabecular space; on leaving the chambers
it flows through the subgastral trabecular space and the ostia in the
gastral membrane, to enter the paragaster and leave the body at the
osculum. The trabeculae and the dermal and gastral membranes
together constitute the dermal layer. This conclusion is based on
comparison with adults of the other groups, for in the absence of
embryological knowledge no direct evidence is available. According
to the Japanese investigator, Isao Ijima,[234] the dermal and gastral
membranes are but expansions of the trabeculae, and the
trabeculae themselves are entirely cellular, containing none of the
gelatinous basis met with in the dermal layer of all other sponges.
There is no surface layer of pinacocytes, the cells forming the
trabeculae being all of one type, namely, irregularly branching cells,
connected with one another by their branches to form a syncytium.
In the trabeculae are found scleroblasts and archaeocytes.

The chambers have a characteristic shape: they are variously

described as "thimble-shaped," "tubular," or "Syconate," and they
open by wide mouths into the subgastral trabecular space. Their
walls have been named the membrana reticularis from the fact that,
when preserved with only ordinary precautions, they are seen as a
regular network of protoplasmic strands, with square meshes and
nuclei at the nodes. This appearance recently found an explanation
when Schulze, for the first time, succeeded in preserving the collared
cells of Hexactinellids.[235] Schulze was then able to show that the
choanocytes are not in contact with one another at their bases,
where the nuclei are situated, but communicate with one another by
stout protoplasmic strands. The form of the choanocyte can be seen
in Fig. 91.

Fig. 90.—Portion of the body-wall of Walteria sp., showing the thimble-shaped

flagellated chambers, above which is seen the dermal membrane. (After F.
E. Schulze.)
To Schulze's description of the chamber, Ijima has added the
important contributions that every mesh in the reticulum functions as
a chamber pore or prosopyle; and that porocytes, such as are found
in Calcarea, are wanting. This structure of the chamber-walls, the
absence of gelatinous basis in the dermal layer, and the slight
degree of histological differentiation in the same layer, added to the
more obvious character of thimble-shaped chambers, are the chief
archaic features of Hexactinellid morphology.

Fig. 91.—Portion of a section of the membrana reticularis or chamber-wall of

Schaudinnia arctica, × 1500. (After F. E. Schulze.)

The skeleton which supports the soft parts is, like them, simple and
constant in its main features. It is secreted by scleroblasts, which lie
in the trabeculae, and is made up of only one kind of spicule and its
modifications. This is the hexactine, a spicule which possesses six
rays disposed along three rectangular axes. Each ray contains an
axial thread, which meets its fellow at the centre of the spicule,
where they together form the axial cross. Modifications of the
hexactine arise either by reduction or branching, by spinulation or
expansion of one or more of the rays. The forms of spicule arising by
reduction are termed pentactines, tetractines, and so on, according
to the number of the remaining rays. Those rays which are
suppressed leave the proximal portion of their axial thread as a
remnant marking their former position (Fig. 94). Octactine spicules
seem to form an exception to the above statements, but Schulze has
shown that they too are but modifications of the hexactine arising by
(1) branching of the rays of a hexactine, followed by (2)
recombination of the secondary rays (Fig. 92).
 Fig. 92.—A, discohexaster, in which the four cladi a, a', b, b', c of each ray start
directly from a central nodule. B, disco-octaster, resulting from the
redistribution of the twenty-four cladi of A into eight groups of three. (After
Schulze, from Delage.)

The various spicules are named, irrespective of their form, according

to their position and corresponding function. The arrangement of the
spicules is best realised by means of a diagram (Fig. 93).

Fig. 93.—Scheme to show the arrangement of spicules in the Hexactinellid

skeleton. Canalaria, microscleres in the walls of the excurrent canals;
Dermalia Autoderm[alia], microscleres in the dermal membrane; D.
Hypoderm[alia], more deeply situated dermalia; Dictyonalia, parenchymalia
which become fused to form the skeletal framework of Dictyonina; Gastralia
Autogastr[alia], microscleres in the gastral membrane; Gastralia
Hypogastr[alia], more deeply situated gastralia; Parenchymalia Principalia,
main supporting spicules between the chambers; P. Comitalia, slender
diactine or triactine spicules accompanying the last; P. Intermedia,
microscleres between the P. principalia; Prostalia, projecting spicules; P.
basalia, rooting spicules, from the base; P. marginalia, defensive spicules,
round the oscular rim; P. pleuralia, defensive spicules, from the sides. (From
Delage and Hérouard, after F. E. Schulze.)
The deviations from this ground-plan of Hexactinellid structure are
few and simple. They are due to folding of the chamber-layer, or to
variations in the shape of the chambers, and to increasing fusion of
the spicules to form rigid skeletons. A simple condition of the
chamber-layer, like that of the young sponge of Fig. 89, occurs also
in some adult Hexactinellids, e.g. in Walteria of the Pacific Ocean
(Fig. 90). Thus is represented in this order the second type of canal
system described among Calcarea. More frequently, however,
instead of forming a smooth sheet, the chamber-layer grows out into
a number of tubular diverticula, the cavities of which are excurrent
canals; these determine a corresponding number of incurrent canals
which lie between them. In this way there arises a canal system
resembling the third type of Calcarea. By still further pouching so as
to give secondary diverticula, opening into the first, a complicated
canal system is formed, as, for example, in Euplectella suberea.

To return to the skeleton, the most complete fusion is attained by the

deposit of a continuous sheath of silica round the apposed parallel
rays of neighbouring spicules. This may be termed the dictyonine
type of union, for it occurs in all those forms originally included under
the term Dictyonina, in which the cement is deposited pari passu
with the formation of the spicules. In other cases connecting bridges
of silica unite the spicules, or there may be a connecting reticulum of
siliceous threads, or, again, rays crossing obliquely may be soldered
together at the point of contact. These more irregular methods occur
in species where the spicules are free at their first formation.
Spicules originally free may later be united in a true Dictyonine
fashion. The terms Lyssacina and Dictyonina are useful to denote
respectively: the former all those Hexactinellida in which the spicules
are free at their first formation, and the latter those in which the
deposit of the cementing layer goes hand in hand with the formation
of the spicules. But the terms do not indicate separateness of origin
of the groups denoted by them, for there is evidence that Dictyonine
types have been derived repeatedly from Lyssacine types, and that
in fact every Dictyonine was once a Lyssacine.
 Fig. 94.—Amphidisc, at a are traces of the four missing rays.

The real or natural cleft in the class lies between those genera
possessing amphidiscs (Figs. 94, 97) among their microscleres, and
all the remainder of the Hexactinellida which bear hexasters (Fig.
96). The former set of genera constitute the sub-class
Amphidiscophora, the latter the Hexasterophora.

Fig. 95.—Portion of body-wall of Hyalonema, in section, showing the irregular

chambers.

Sub-Class 1. Amphidiscophora.—Amphidiscs are present,

hexasters absent. A tuft of rooting spicules or basalia is always
present. The ciliated chambers deviate more or less from the typical
thimble shape, and the membrana reticularis is continuous from
chamber to chamber (Figs. 94, 95, 97).
 Fig. 96.—Hexasters. A, Graphiohexaster; B, floricome; C, onychaster.

Sub-Class 2. Hexasterophora.—Hexasters are present,

amphidiscs absent. The chambers have the typical regular form, and
are sharply marked off from one another (Figs. 90, 96).

All the Amphidiscophora have Lyssacine skeletons; in the

Hexasterophora both types of skeleton occur. The subdivision of the
Hexasterophora is determined by the presence or absence of
uncinate spicules. An "uncinatum" is a diactine spicule, pointed at
both ends and bearing barbs all directed towards one end. This
method of classification gives us a wholly Dictyonine order,
Uncinataria, and an order consisting partly of Dictyonine, partly of
Lyssacine genera, which may be distinguished as the
Anuncinataria. Ova have rarely been found, and sexually produced
larvae never; but Ijima has found archaeocyte clusters in abundance,
and his evidence is in favour of the view that they give rise asexually
to larvae, described by him in this class for the first time (see p. 231).

Both sub-classes are represented in British waters: the

Amphidiscophora by Hyalonema thomsoni and Pheronema
carpenteri; the Hexasterophora by Euplectella suberea and
Asconema setubalense, and of course possibly by others.

Hyalonema thomsoni, one of the glass-rope sponges, was dredged

by the Porcupine off the Shetland Islands in water of about 550
fathoms. The spindle-shaped body of the sponge is shown in Fig. 97.
Its long rooting tuft is continued right up its axis, to end in a conical
projection, which is surrounded by four apertures leading into
corresponding compartments of the paragaster.

Fig. 97.—Hyalonema thomsoni. A, Whole specimen with rooting tuft and

Epizoanthus crust; B, pinulus, a spicule characteristic of but not peculiar to
the Amphidiscophora, occurring in the dermal and gastral membranes; C,
amphidisc with axial cross; D, distal end of rooting spicule with grapnel.
(After F. E. Schulze.)

The crust of Anthozoa of the genus Epizoanthus (p. 406) on the

rooting tuft is a constant feature in this as in other species of
Hyalonema. It contributed to make the sponge a puzzle, which long
defied interpretation. The earliest diagnosis the genus received was
the "Glass Plant." Then the root tuft was thought to be part of the
Epizoanthus, which was termed a "most aberrant Alcyonarian with its
base inserted in a sponge"; next we hear of the sponge as parasitic
on the Sea Anemone. Finally, the root tuft was shown to be proper to
the sponge, which was, however, figured upside down, till some
Japanese collectors described the natural position, or that in which
they were accustomed to find it.

Pheronema carpenteri was found by the Lightning off the north of

Scotland in 530 fathoms. The goblet shaped, thick walled body and
broad, ill-defined root tuft are shown in Fig. 98, but no figure can do
justice to the lustre of its luxuriant prostalia and delicate dermal
network with stellate knots at regular intervals. The basalia are two-
pronged and anchor-like.

Fig. 98.—Pheronema carpenteri. × ½. (From Wyville Thomson.)

Both the Hexasterophoran genera were dredged off the north of

Scotland, and both conform to the Lyssacine type without uncinates.
Euplectella suberea is a straight, erect tube, anchored by a tuft of
basalia. The upper end of the tube is closed by a sieve plate, the
perforations in which are oscula, while the beams contain flagellated
chambers, so that the sieve is simply a modified portion of the wall. It
is a peculiarity of this as of one or two other allied genera that the
lateral walls are perforated by oscula. They are termed parietal gaps,
and are regularly arranged along spiral lines encircling the body.

Fig. 99.—Sieve plate of Euplectella imperialis. (After Ijima.)

Ijima, who has dredged Euplectellids from the waters near Tokyo,
finds that in young specimens oscula are confined to the sieve plate;
parietal gaps are secondary formations. The groundwork of the
skeleton is a lattice similar to that shown in Fig. 100. The chamber-
layer is much folded. Various foreign species of Euplectella afford
interesting examples of association with a Decapod Crustacean,
Spongicola venusta, of which a pair lives in the paragaster of each
specimen. The Crustacean is light pink, the female distinguished by
a green ovary, which can be seen through the transparent tissues. It
is not altogether clear what the prisoner gains, nor what fee, if any,
the host exacts.

Ijima relates that the skeleton of Euplectella is in great demand in

Japan for marriage ceremonies. He also informs us that the
Japanese name means "Together unto old age and unto the same
grave," while by a slight alteration it becomes "Lobsters in the same
cell," and remarks that the Japanese find this an amusing pun.

Fig. 100.—Skeletal lattice of Euplectella imperialis. (After Ijima.)