本論文「台灣社區大學之研究─公民社會建構與終身學習政策的實踐」主要目的在研究台灣最近四年以來，蓬勃發展的另類高等教育社區大學，目前已經招生上課的社區大學共有卅七所，每年參與選課的學員將近七萬人次，並且仍然持續增加之中。本論文藉由個案研究（採取質的研究中文獻分析、參與觀察與深度訪談等方法）探討：1、公民社會建構（社會面向）。2、終身學習政策（政策面向）。3、社區大學的定位、法制化（文憑授予）、財源、課程與教學，以及與政府關係（組織管理面向）。研究結果分析與歸納為： 　　研究發現（一）：社區大學的環境。 　　1、社區大學是民間教育改革（四一○教育改造）運動的延續；在意識型態方面是由民間自發性的草根運動，訴求改革官方傳統的制式教育；此外，由於宗教團體涉入社區大學的經營，其重視個人心靈成長的教育，則和社區大學「知識解放與公民社會」宗旨有所差異。 　　2、社區大學透過發展地方產業文化、社區參與、課程社團化和社團課程化等策略，繼續發揚社區總體營造的精神。 　　3、知識解放是社區大學的核心價值，民眾透過社區大學強調經驗知識與對話的學習，培養批判思考能力，建立個人價值觀，並朝向改造社會與建構公民社會的理想邁進。 　　4、社區大學全國研討會的參與觀察，以加強社區大學扣緊本土社會脈動與議題發展，以及全球化趨勢（例如：農村、原住民、勞工議題，以及WTO的因應策略等）。 　　研究發現（二）：社區大學的實踐。社區大學對於公民社會建構與終身學習政策等指標的實踐，歸納為下列的結果。 　　1、倡導公共性：社區大學是透過非營利組織的倡導，以及提升公民參與能力，強化其公共性特質。 　　2、促進社區參與：社區大學將社團活動納入正式課程，並採取工作坊方式運作，走出學校進入社區服務策略，使得社區大學在社區意識凝聚的成效顯著。 　　3、型塑公共領域：社區大學利用公共論壇的實施，提供一個公共議題對話的平台，來喚醒學員的公共意識與公民參與的能力。 　　4、提昇終身學習的品質：社區大學提供民眾系統性的終身學習場域，並建構成為學習型組織，以提昇個人知能與素質，以及整體社會的水準。 　　5、延伸社區大學的視野：研究發現法制化是目前社區大學最急迫的議題，也是拓展社大視野與永續發展的關鍵要素。 　　最後，本論文綜合研究結果，提出對於政府部門、社區大學、社會大眾，以及後續研究的建議，以作為政府部門（特別是地方政府）、社區大學、非營利組織、社區工作者、民眾，以及將要開辦社區大學機構的參考。 / The objective of this doctorial dissertation, A Study of the Community Universities in Taiwan: the Practice of the Structure of Civil Society and Lifelong Learning Policy, is mainly about the growing of the higher education system, the ‘community universities,’ in the past four years in Taiwan. Up till this moment, there are totally thirty-seven community universities in Taiwan with approximately seventy thousand students, which are still increasing in every year. 　　Through cases studying, the structure of civil society (in terms of society), lifelong learning policy (in terms of policy), and the definition of the community universities will be discussed in this dissertation. The result can be divided into two parts： 　　A. The environment of the community universities： 　　a. The community university is the continuing of the nongovernmental education revolution (410 educational reformation), an activity initiated by the locals in order to reform the traditional education system made by the authorities. Moreover, the involvement of religious associations and their idea of inner growing of an individual differ from the mission statement, liberalizing of knowledge and civil society, of the community universities. 　　b.The community university helps to develop the spirit of social construction by developing local culture, taking part in the community, and using the tactics of making courses socialized and bringing social activities into class. 　　c.Liberalizing of knowledge is the key point of the community universities. The mass population can not only train their thinking ability, but also build their own value as individuals in the community universities which emphasizes the learning from the knowledge of experience and dialogue. Furthermore, they can move on toward the idea of social reformation and civil society. 　　d. Participating in the National Conference of the Community Universities can reinforce the ties of the universalities, the movement and the growing issue of local communities, and the global tendency. 　　B. The practice of the community universities： 　　a.Advocating its public nature: The quality of the public nature in the community university is advocated by nonprofit organizations and the elevation of citizen participation. 　　b.Promoting social participation: The community university adds social activities into formal courses and runs as a workshop to join in social service, and makes a successful effort from gathering social consciousness. 　　c. Sculpting public sphere: The community university uses the public forum as a place for discussing public issues in order to arouse the social consciousness and the citizen participation of the students. 　　d.Advancing the quality of lifelong learning: Forming as a study organization, the community university provides people a systematic lifelong learning to advance not only individual knowledge and competency, but also the level of the whole society. 　　e.Expanding the outlook of the community university: According to the research, the most important issue for the community university is to make it legalized, which is also the key point to expand the outlook and the interminable development of the community university. 　　To conclude, the comprehensive study result of the dissertation gives the government, the community universities, the public, and the follow up study a word of advice and serves as a reference to them and the organizations that is about to found a community university.