The initiative of Kaunas as a learning city illustrates the role of integration of local government, university and other agents in fostering and supporting a vision for an inclusive learning community.
Kaunas is the second biggest city in Lithuania with a population of 0.35 million in 2010. It is situated at the confluence of the two biggest rivers in Lithuania– the Nemunas and the Neris. The city is very green, 6 percent of its territory is covered by parks. It is a university city with 11 universities. The ratio between students and the rest of the city population is 1:13. Historically Kaunas has been a Hanseatic city that has kept the tradition of entrepreneurship. At the moment most people of Kaunas are employed in processing industries, sales, services and education. The city boasts an active cultural life; there are four theatres, a symphonic orchestra and numerous museums in the city. Annual international festivals of jazz and classical music are held in Kaunas.
However, in the recent two decades Kaunas has faced brain drain and extensive emigration of skilled labourers. On the one hand, people are leaving to other countries for economic reasons; on the other hand, young people tend to leave the city for better employment opportunities and a more diverse cultural life in other places of Lithuania, above all – Vilnius as the capital.
Several stages of the initiative of Kaunas as a learning city may be described:
- Initiating in 2000 – 2001. The initiator was the Institute of Educational Studies at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU).
- Creating of the general network in the Learning City (the main agents: the Municipality of Kaunas, Institute of Educational Studies and Institute of Business Strategy at KTU). The result – the General network and the Learning City Council was established in 2004.
- The Concept of the Learning City was developed and adopted by the Learning City Council; it was approved by the Municipality of Kaunas as part of the city development strategy in 2002.
- Different networks of the Learning City – of local communities, schools, colleges, universities, business organizations, theatres, museums, other organizations, associations, municipality and its organizations – have been in the process of continuing development for reaching different objectives identified in the Concept of the Learning City since 2004.
The initiators of the network that form the backbone of the Kaunas – Learning city project may be considered the Institute of Educational Studies at KTU. The idea of developing Kaunas into the learning city emerged in this group of scholars. It relied to a large extent on the ideas of Norman Longworth described in his book ‘Making lifelong learning work: learning cities for a learning century’ (2000) and the experience accumulated by KTU researchers. The researchers have involved the Department of Education of Kaunas Municipality, which provided its enthusiastic support to the proposal. Later, the Municipality of Kaunas city was also made familiar with the idea, and it agreed the plan to develop Kaunas into a learning city.
In 2000, based on the analysis and assessment of European, Japanese and American experience, a full strategy for Learning city development and the methodology of its implementation was drafted. After the municipality had officially confirmed the aim of creating Kaunas as a learning city, it became a member of the European Lifelong Learning Initiative (ELLI). The first stage of drafting a complex programme ‘Kaunas – the Learning City’ was launched.
In 2001, at the city conference ‘The Learning city – a vision of Kaunas’s future’ the conceptual guidelines of the Learning city were adopted.
In the period from 2002 to 2007 the city made many efforts to develop the services of formal and non-formal education. The Learning City Council was founded and started its activities. Many special events – forums, conferences, and seminars – took place in the city that contributed to the dissemination of information about the learning city and its development, promoting particularly the participation of citizens. The city was involved in European Commission Learning City projects and other international activities (in particular, the SOCRATES project PASCAL European Network of Learning Regions – PEN3RL).
Innovations: The vision of Kaunas as Sustainable Learning City
The starting project of this vision in 2007 was entrusted to the researchers at the Institute of Educational Studies at Kaunas University of Technology (coordinated by the author of this article). The conceptual background was to strengthen the general preconditions for the emergence of innovative community. The Sustainable Learning City is based on the creation of an innovative community of sustainable life and development. This city draws on the following principles for sustainable policy and behaviour as formulated by Becker (2003): 1. Stability and vitality of the system; 2. Environmental sustainability; 3. Economic sustainability; 4. Social sustainability; 5. Cultural sustainability; 6. Educational sustainability; 7. International issues of sustainability.
This means that if...
- the social interests of actors are realised, and cooperation and a learning culture is developed the city is a community-based city, a city that is sensitive to individuals and their families, an intellectual and educational city; a city of culture;
- the economic interests of actors are fulfilled, the city is an entrepreneurial and high value-added producing city, a city promoting the opportunities;
- the environmental interests of actors are satisfied, the city is an environmentally friendly city, a healthy city, a safe city;
- the technological infrastructure is developed and actively used, the city is an e-city;
- an interaction between all the above-mentioned general preconditions takes place; the city is intelligent and innovative, and, by being so, confirms the high qualities of the city.
The strategic aim of developing Kaunas into the Learning City is described as follows: to enable the individual and collective learning of citizens ‘at all times and in all places’, as well as fostering the organizational learning of the city and its organizations and communities in a way that would solve problems of importance to the city, its inhabitants, communities and organizations and develop in a sustainable way those aspects that would enable Kaunas to become a first-class place for living and working, and a favourable location to develop economic and social activity.
Cooperation of the network partners with each other in 2010
An informal network has been developed for solving the problem of revitalizing the Centre (the Downtown - Laisvės alėja) and the Old Town of Kaunas (which dates back to the 15th century and is 600 years old). The aim of the network is to revitalize the centre and the Old Town of Kaunas to make them more attractive for local people and tourists.
When in the Central part of Kaunas a mega-shopping centre ‘Akropolis’ (which draws on the concept ‘a city within a city’) was built in 2007, the number of people visiting the Downtown (Laisvės alėja) and the Old Town of Kaunas has dramatically decreased. Businesses have expired in this part of Kaunas. This problem became more severe because of the economic crisis. Still, Laisvės alėja and the Old Town of Kaunas are pedestrian areas that could be attractive to people according to urbanistic principles. A lot of cultural and educational establishments are situated in this area (four theatres, five museums, two universities, etc).
Development of the Network
This Network consists of two parts: a) the part of the Old Town in the network; b) the part of Laisvės alėja (the Avenue of Liberty, the main pedestrian street of the city) in the network.
(a) The part of the Old Town was initiated by business people who attracted the initiatives of those in culture and education, representatives of not only formal institutions but also informal, e.g. groups of amateur artists; the part of the network was supported by the Municipality. However, business people should be regarded as the organizers of this part of the network.
(b) The part of Laisvės alėja was initiated by theatres and universities. Business people joined them; the Municipality granted their support. Above all, the universities should be regarded as the organizers of this part of the network.
When the Municipality started to support both parts of the network, it also played the role of a coordinator providing opportunities for the two parts to become one network. The initiative has been very successful in the Old Town, it attracts many more people now than it used to. The part of Laisvės alėja, however, still remains quite deserted.
Success factors:
- The Municipality acting as a coordinator of different initiatives.
- Close cooperation between local government, university and other agents, e.g. business people.
Questions for discussion:
- Which of our strengths are the most important considering the fact that the City is in a country of limited resources?
- What additional actions should be taken for the City to reduce/stop the brain drain and extensive emigration of skilled labourers?
- How business should be further encouraged?
- How the residents of Kaunas City may be unified drawing on the cultural heritage of the City?
- What measures may increase the motivation of adults for ‘sustainable development’ and employability?
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Author Palmira Juceviciene is Professor, Head of the Department of Educational Systems and Director of the Institute of Educational Studies at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. Her key research areas have been learning region/ city, regional development; life-long learning, learning networks, clusters; sustainable development; democratic citizenship and involvement; higher education. She has published more than 170 publications: four monographs, 13 manuals and other books and more than 160 articles, co-edited the book ‘Higher Education and National Development: universities and societies in transition’ (London: Routledge, 2007), ‘The role of university in liberalization of society in the countries in-transition’ (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2005) and ‘Towards the Learning Society: educational issues’ (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002). January 2011
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Comments
District Approach to Learning Community Development
The Kaunus initiative presents another approach to learning city development among communities (like our own) with llimited resources - that of focusing on a specific district or neighbourhood of the city. It allows for experimentation around learning-based community development on a smaller scale. A more manageable microcosm of learning-based community development in which partnership building and marshalling resources toward specific outcomes would be more straightforward. Outcomes would be easier to track. Commitment might be more easily sustained.
To some extent, Vancouver has had success with a neighbourhood approach. It was originally begun by neighbourhood houses, community-based organizations, and libraries with a focus on literacy -- but it evolved in at least 7-9 neighbourhoods to be more broadly focused on lifelong learning and to embrace the interests of Business Improvement Associations, educational providers, and government services. They have achieved much with extremely limited resources. Issues of linking up neighbourhood efforts haven't completely been resolved, though, so there is some unnecessary duplication of efforts in some cases. The role of the municipal government in actively promoting and supporting neighbourhood development is key - and it sounds like that is a significant success factor in Kaunus.
A neighboruhood apprach to learning community development
I think there is much value in Stacey's comment. A local neighbourhood or district approach has sometimes been adopted in community development, especially in areas with considerable diversity. This approach was adopted for the Community Plan in Brimbank City Council in Western Melbourne as a response to ethnic diversity with migrant populations. I recommended that the learning plan for the city should adopt the same approach. A neighbourhood strategy can be seen as an innovation strategy to design and test a model responsive to local needs with the intention to then extend the model to other neighbourhoods. As Stacey notes, this is often the hard part, but several neighbourhood innovations run concurrently can help in developing and exchanging ideas.
A neighbourhood approach can be focussed on a local library or school (or both in partnership) with community organisations participating in the development so there is community ownership and empowerment.
I wonder if this approach is also relevant to the problem noted by Hong Kong of extending a culture of learning to urban migrant enclaves?
local learning community action
Local neighbourhood action is a useful way to initiate reform and fits in with current trends towards community regeneration eg the UK movement towards the 'big society' (though that means a hundred different things to a hundred different people.) There are many examples - in Beijing the drive to estabish an infrastructure within which lifelong learning can thrive led the city to concentrate on one of its districts (albeit one comprising 800,000 people). The major objectives were to link the stakeholders in a cross-sectoral initiative to avoid duplication and encourage partnership, and to eventually have a learning representative at street level who would stimulate learning activity. One can read two sorts of motive in that - one sinister involving population control and the other a genuine attempt to create a learning society. In Edinburgh local community centres are the focus of learning activity, employing a variety of educational strategies to attarct adults back into learning. The REAL centres in many parts of Glasgow focus on making people employable through learning. There are many other examples and we hope to include them in the European Commission's EUROlocal storehouse project currently being led by PASCAL at Glasgow University.
Young people and creative industries in Kaunas
Your stimulus paper Palmira identifies a brain drain problem with the loss of young people and skilled workers. This is a common problem in many regional cities, including countries such as Australia where it is most severe in smaller regional centres where the traditional industries (eg wool) are in decline. Kaunas, however, has 11 universities so that the city has much to support a knowledge based economy, and perhaps encourage creative industries which are often populated by young people. There are references in some stimulus papers to social enterprises for young people. Has much been done yet to realise the potential of the creative industries in Kaunas as a strategy both for economic development and retaining well educated young people in Kaunas?