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Towards a Framework of Themes & Issues for Comparative Analysis

The PIE stimulus papers identify a number of important themes and issues that are common in participating cities. There would be value in working towards agreement on a framework of important themes and issues to assist in structuring blog responses, and as a basis for a PASCAL analytical paper following the initial phase of blog responses.

This note suggests a possible framework for your consideration and comment. I appreciate that the themes evident in the stimulus papers can be described and structured in various ways, and that there is overlap and interaction between these thematic boxes in whatever ways they are designated. If there are better ways to structure these core themes, I welcome your views.

My suggestions follow:

  1. Growth, diversity, & exclusion

    Many cities face challenges arising from rapid growth, the effects of  mass migration and increased diversity, and consequent poverty and exclusion. This often goes along with economic restructuring with mismatches between labour supply and demand. These issues are reflected in the Dar-es-Salaam and Hong Kong papers in particular, and in the Hume Global Learning Village paper where responses over a period since 2003 are outlined, driven by social justice objectives.

    The Dar-es-Salaam and Hong Kong papers point to the size of the problem and pose the question of where to start. Do the other stimulus papers point to strategies that could assist these cities? What else might be suggested?

  2. Creativity & innovation

    Most of the papers, if not all, illustrate creativity and innovation in some form. For example, in the innovative approach of Bari to address crime and safety, the approach of Vancouver to harnessing curiosity and engaging disengaged people, the succession of innovations in the Hume Global Learning Village, and the shifts in the roles of Glasgow museums in adapting to social and economic change.

    These examples raise the question of what are the conditions that favour and promote creativity and innovation in cities in addressing major social and economic issues? Various success factors are identified in some papers. Do these point to key influences?

  3. Roles of cultural institutions

    This is one of the subjects in this round of PIE, and is best illustrated in the Glasgow paper with its focus on museums as arenas for lifelong learning and agents for social change. The Glasgow experience illustrates considerable shifts in the roles of museums aligned with changes in the city. This paper poses a set of very pertinent questions including: What should be the core functions of museums in the 21st century? Can museums effectively challenge prejudice and intolerance?
  4. Building a learning culture

    A number of papers touch on, directly or indirectly, building a culture of learning in cities. This is illustrated, for example, in the Vancouver, Kaunas, Hume, and Glasgow papers. These papers show that cultural change is a complex undertaking with substantial time required. What are the lessons from the stimulus papers on building a culture of learning in cities? In what ways might progress be accelerated?

  5. The milieu and sustainability of cities of cities

    Several papers touch on important aspects in the milieu and quality of life in cities. The Bari paper takes up the important subject of crime and safety in cities. While several papers touch briefly on building environmentally friendly cities, this is not a major theme in the papers. Health and overall quality of life, for example in respect of ageing populations, is not taken up in this round.

    The Kaunas paper cities Becker in drawing on the following principles for sustainable policy and behaviour : stability and vitality of the system; environmental. Economic. Social, cultural, and educational sustainability, international issues of sustainability. The implications of this framework are set out in the Kaunas paper. Does this provide a suitable framework for the long term sustainable development of learning cities? In what ways can a learning city foster linkages and synergies between these areas of sustainable development. Ideas please. What role can lifelong learning strategies play?

    Do the papers overall point to directions that could be taken up in reconceptualising the sustainable 21st century learning city?

For your comment and ideas please.

Comments

Learning cities in the UK

by Peter Kearns - Feb 5 2011 - 01:30

A key objective of PIE is working towards a 21st century concept of learning cities that is responsive to the challanges many cities now face. In doing this we should be mindful of lessons from past experience. A good source of information on learning communities (regions/cities) is becopming available through the EUROlocal project which may be accessed through the PASCAL web site.

A useful EUROlocal outcome is a paper on the UK experience with learning cities by Robert Hamilton and Lynette Jordan. This was a paper given at the PASCAL Ostersund Conferencelast June which will be published with other Ostersund papers later this year.  A key conclusion of this paper which is relevant to PIE  is that the high tide of the learning city in the UK may on the surface appear to have passed. However, new models are emerging under the banner of lifelong learning. The paper also observes that the UK experience demonstrates that progress can only be made if lifelong learning is central to local government strategy.

These are important conclusions that merit discussion in the PIE context in the light of the experience of other countres as well as the UK. Is there a connection between the perceived connection with local government strategy and the current debate on the "Big Society"?

 

UK Learning Cities

by Mike Osborne - Feb 6 2011 - 13:04

Yes the paper from Robert and Lynette is useful. Having investigated what became of the UK Learning Cities Initiative myself, it is something of a mystery as to how the enthusiasm of the late 1990s appears to have evapourated. At http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/learningcities/front.htm, it is reported that Sheffield, Norwich, Darlington, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Stockton, Hull, Derby, Greenwich, Southampton were among those that had declared themselves Learning Cities or Towns in recent years. We can add to that list others such as Glasgow, but in most of these places this label is no longer used. To a certain extent this is because the activity has been absorbed into something else, and in a recent book chapter written with Norman Longworth we note this (see http://shop.niace.org.uk/perspectives-learning-cities.html). This for example in Scotland includes Community Planning Partnerships, part of statutory Community Planning. In Scotland, a number of public sector organisations are statutory partners in Community Planning. These include the local authority, health board, fire, police, enterprise agency and transport partnership. In addition to the statutory partners, Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) typically involve other public, voluntary, community and private sector partners.

There is however some explicit current Learning City activity and I suspect that the time is again ripe for the Learning City in the UK as we strive to maximise the use of existing resources in innovative ways. Readers may for example look at Dundee (http://www.godundee.co.uk/events/dundee-learning-city-event-10-nov-2009/) and York (http://www.transformationfund.org.uk/yortime) as examples of current activity. Dundee is case case study being highlighted in the R3L+ project within which Pascal is a partner (see http://www.learning-regions.net/). 

Local Government and the Big Society in the UK

by Peter Welsh - Feb 7 2011 - 10:21

Peter,

You pose a crucial question about not only lifelong learning, but policy in general. If policies such as LLL fall out of favour with changes in government (either national or local), to what extent can they continue to make an impact on the ground? This could be a core question in PIE's evolution as it may be applied more widely.

As somebody who is currently working in UK local government, the view from the infield is somewhat jaded. Those policies which have the greatest impact and profile in the short term (in relation to how much energy is spent in their support) are inevitably those which have funding attached to them, and the nature of their pursuit all too often reflects the specific (often quantitaive) performance indicators attached to the financial system.

Currently, however, local government in the UK is undergoing unprecedented financial cuts, as a result two major practical activites are taking place: first, an almost evangelical pursuit of efficiency savings by focussing on internal practices, organisational structures and other measures; second, debate around which services need to be delivered by local government and which ones do not.

It is in this latter activity that the 'Big Society' has been put forward as offereing an alternative model. In some instances the concept of the Big Society may well be compatible with a local community's desire to take more control, and acountability for public services: however can this be funded (even at very minimal levels), do communities have the technical skills to undertake these roles, how does society approach what will inevitably lead to a wide variety of services and models?

In an interview with the Times (7th Feb 2011) Elisabeth Hoodless, CEO of Community Service Volunteers, has argued that the Big Society project has been undermined by large puiblic sector spending cuts, as volunteers projects have been hit as a result. This outcome is contrary to policy objectives but wholly in line with financial contraints.

The concept of the Big Society is appealing on a number of levels, but is it a serious delivery mechanism or simply an attitude to the relationship between citizen and state?

Here's the Prime Minister David Cameron's speech that launched the Big Society for those of you who aren't familiar with it.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2010/07/big-society-speech-53572

Whatever happened to the learning city?

by Norman Longworth - Feb 7 2011 - 10:52

Mike Osborne is quite correct in lamenting the demise of the learning city. The UK learning cities network comprised some 80 UK cities in the early noughties. It now no longer exists or is inoperative. The German Learning Regions project spent 100 million euros within 95 regions and only a few are now operating. Why might this be?

One answer of course is funding - when the funding dries up the motivation to continue also dries up. Another might be related to what is termed the Zeitgeist - the phenomenon of changing fashions and priorities in a rapidly changing world.

A third relates to the drivers - often these initiatives are the pet project of a powerful person in the local authority - a councillor or an Education Director. For example, Espoo in Finland was probably one of Europe's foremost learning cities under the leadership of the then deputy mayor, Liisa Tommila. A change of ruling party saw her out of government and priorities changed.

But whatever the reason, something always remains from these initiatives.  Ask a local authority CEO if his/her authority is a learning authority and he/she will probably say yes and point to several examples of why. Look at any city website in the UK, and elswhere,  and one will find references to lifelong learning initiatives that survive despite the loss of learning city focus. 

As Mike says, there is probably a need to return to the learning city agenda and to link it to other initiatives that are presently in vogue eg Big Society, culture and heritage learning, employability, internationalism etc - and all of this in the context of local government cuts throughout the world. The EUROlocal project is collecting many examples of learning city good practice and the (free) tools that help create it. It will be available for general consumption by the end of March 2011. And then we have the opportunity to revive the vision.   

Where is the organisational home for the Learning City?

by Peter Welsh - Feb 7 2011 - 12:13

The link between funding and policy is clear in your post , Norman. I wholeheartedly agree, and feel that the concept of lifelong Learning is hardly visible in my own organisation.

Given the radical changes that are taking place in the relationship between local government and educational establishments in the UK, the real links between the two are likely to become increasingly informal.

If there is little or no funding for LLL then who is going to pursue it as a policy objective? At a time when the job market is increasingly fluid and competitive, should LLL become more a part of what happens in economic development departments, given the shift away from large capital projects due to lack of finance?

One thing is certain, the resiliance of the economy is intrinsically linked with the availabilty of skilled workers who are flexible enough to evolve in tune with the market. Cities and regions that can understand this and create conditions in which this can thrive will be more resiliant to economic crises than those that do not. This will only happen if the decision-makers at the top can develop the foresight and courage to invest in the future today regardless of short-term financial constraints.

The demise of Learning Cities

by Lynette Jordan - Feb 7 2011 - 19:48

This is an area which needs explored further. Identifying the characteristics which make a learning city sustainable would be useful in helping us to see just what it is that makes the difference in terms of longevity. In Scotland we have a very interesting situation where two of the biggest learning cities Dundee and Glasgow, have developed in different ways. Dundee has flourished - (see Mike Osborne and Muir Houston studies for R3L+) and the city still sees itself very much as a developing learning city which is vibrant, innovative and dynamic. Glasgow on the other hand has passed its peak in terms of being a learning city. Glasgow has changed track and now is involved in the Glasgow Community Planning Partnership model of development. It still talks about learning as one of the main 5 themes e.g a working, a safe, a healthy, a learning and a vibrant Glasgow, but the priority and emphasis no longer lies with learning. So how could we ensure that when a change in government policy or strategic city development occurrs the emphasis or focus does not move away from learning? Learning has to once again be seen as the root of all development and as a stimulus to all matters economic, social and political. I intend to explore this further through the work i am doing in EUROlocal and with my colleague Robert Hamilton.

LLL regions in a money-tight world

by Norman Longworth - Feb 7 2011 - 13:21

Peter is of course right to highlight the short-sightedness of governments and regions in preparing for the future. A knowledge society needs to have future economic and social development constantly in mind - otherwise there is no future.

So what are the alternatives? Obviously industry and business itself will need to contribute more in its own self-interest but it's difficult to see where the long-term thinking and action will come from. National Government seems to believe that this is not the function of local government, and yet has no alternative solution other than that the Big Society will provide.  Sure, mobilising all the human, intellectual and cultural capital in the community will provide some resource, but hardly enough to make much difference. Privatisation of services will produce yet more short-term thinking to satisfy short term goals. 

So perhaps we need to initiate a search for ideas on how the learning city/region ideal, including the propagation of lifelong learning, can be fostered in a cash-tight world.

The task might be easier if local government followed learning organisation principles of educating firstly all its administrators and professionals in the realities of economic and social development through lifelong learning (as we tried to do in the LILARA project) and then extending that to the citizens themselves. Tools and materials for doing that already exist and will be available from EUROlocal in 2 months time..

Any more bright ideas?

A 6th comparative dimension?

by Peter Welsh - Feb 7 2011 - 14:32

Peter,

Given your original post was about creating the fcomparative framework for PIE, the subsequent exchanges have highlighted the importance of the policy context, perhaps, therefore the addition of this as a 6th theme may add further value to the 5 you have already set out.

Towards a New Generation of Learning Cities

by Peter Kearns - Feb 8 2011 - 02:03

Lynette, Norman, Mike, and Peter have each seized on important dimensions of the present situation in their posts. There is a seeming paradox in that the case for lifelong learning has never been greater in the environment confronting cities but the high tide of learning city development appears to have receded, or have the thrusts merely changed direction and designations?

Norman is right in suggesting that local government bodies should themselves develop as learning organisations. Glasgow recognises this in their stimulus paper. How can we promote this dimension? Values and priniples are clearly important (eg the role of the Hume Social Justice Charter) so that it is useful to be reminded of the Limerick PENR3L Declaration.

Peter is spot on in suggesting that we should see the policy context as a sixth key theme in working towards a new generation of learning cities. It is relevant to note that learning communities in Australia are most developed in the two states (Victoria and South Australia) where state government policy has the most recognition of lifelong learning. Investing in the future in terms of human and social capital is obviously a challenge in a period  resource restraint. So how can we avoid lifelong learning becoming an appendige of economic development? In what ways can the social problems in cities (eg Bari, Hong Kong, Dar es Salaam) serve to fuel a broader strategic approach? Should sustainability be central to our thinking (my theme 5). Cork provides a nice example of good learning processes evolving over time.

Lynette rightly reminds us that we need to promote the idea of learning as the root of all development, and as a stimulus to all matters economic, social, cultural, and political. It will be useful to probe more deeply into models such as Dundee and Glasgow that have been raised, as well as the models in the stimulus papers.

This has been a useful discussion so far. I wonder what the next stage in our discussion should be, taking into account the blogs so far. Can we start to identify the key characteristics of a new generation of learning cities responsive to C21 conditions and challenges?

Complexity, learning and local authorities

by Norman Longworth - Feb 8 2011 - 11:16

Of course Lynette is right in suggesting that learning is at the core of development. As John Storan often says - we can only learn our way into the future - and that is true of organisations, people, cities and regions. But whatever the truth of that, a large number of people do not see it that way. In the Dublin consultation the concepts of a safe city, a healthy city and an employing city were voted as more important than a learning city in the eyes of respondents. Local Authority CEOs and service managers have a hundred balls to juggle, and learning is just one of them. It often takes a back seat in the effort to keep the authority up and running on a day by day basis. When I worked for a multinational company in the private sector great lip-service was paid to the role of learning in the company's future. but when the financial squeezes came, education was often the target for cuts. Seems that the idea is that we can stop learning for a while until the good times come back.

While it may seem self-evident to us in education, the place of learning in a local authority is a more complex animal than the authority is often able to deal with. Yes it is important for economic growth, but in a desire to isolate the factors that produce such growth - industrial potential, entrepreneurial development, support for companies, innovation and creativity etc  - the complex interaction and holism between economic and social, human, intellectual, community and cultural capital tends to be forgotten or ignored. Too difficult to fathom out and tap into.  

The provision of learning in local authorities is also a complex affair. In the LILARA project we identified a large number of learning needs which could not remotely be satisfied by traditional education delivery methods. They demanded a different approach based on self-learning within a strong continuing professional development framework for all employees. And yet, there are solutions, and some of them will become clear when the EUROlocal site goes live, but will the authorities notice?  And will they come out of their silos to learn from outside sources? 

Local Authorities as Learning Organisations

by Peter Welsh - Feb 8 2011 - 11:21

Norman, this sounds like a whole other area of inquiry. As somebody very close to this subject, do you know of any exisiting rersearch into local authorities as learning organisations? If not then maybe its time has come. We are grappling with this almost impossible dichotomy of slashing budgets whilst taking creative risks for the future. Learning must be the key variable in this activity.

Whose Learning City?

by Bruce Wilson - Feb 9 2011 - 10:51

The various posts prompted by the concern about 'whatever happened to the learning city?' have canvassed a range of possibilities, which make some effort to distinguish language (is it all about labels?) and substance (what can you do when there is no money).

There's another question here: who is listening? A majority of the stimulus papers refer to diverse populations, and to the extent of exclusion amongst their populations which many cities face. I was struck during the early iterations of PIE in Australia during 2010, when it became apparent that many members of local communities view 'learning' as a dirty word. There might be a number of reasons for this, but the simple underlying proposition was that schools give 'learning' a bad name.

Of course, we all aware of the extent to which young people find schools difficult place to be: at best offering occasional interest and often boring, often accompanied by the experience of failure, or at least of being diminished in some way. Without ignoring the efforts to enhance the experience of schooling, it remains pretty obvious that many adult community members who we want to be involved in the various initiatives described in the stimulus papers won;t necessarily see this as a personally desirable activity.

This points to the striking value of the festivals which occur in Cork and Hume, and similar initiatives in other places, for the way in which they can bridge this gap, but it remains that the great majority of community members continue to remain at the margins. Yes, there might be strong economic arguments, personally and regionally, and other kinds of benefits to be gained as well, but 'learning' is not the first choice of how to get them.

Perhaps it is the language of learning that gets in the way. Rather, we need to focus on the kinds of processes which generate the personal  and collective insights and attributes which we are hoping to see generated, and how we connect with ordinary people on the ground.

Cities confronting compelling social challenges

by Peter Kearns - Feb 14 2011 - 00:25

The Bari stimulus paper gives a very good example of a city acting in a broad strategic way to address a compelling social challenge. In this case crime and public safety. Do other examples exist in participating cities of similar broad strategic responses to other compelling social challenges ( eg envoronment, global warming, large scale migration)

Localism, place making and social innovation

by Peter Kearns - Feb 20 2011 - 02:07

A new Policy Challenge Paper published by PASCAL entitled "Localism, place-making and social innovation" is very relevant to PIE objectives and worth reading and reflecting on. The paper by John Tibbitt comments on the trend to localism, linked to funding cits, which is leading to pressures for social innovation. The paper argues for a new mindset and suggests conditions that favour social innovation.

Most PIE stimulus papers give examples of social innovation. A few examples include Bari's response to crime and public safety, Glasgow's shifts in the roles of cultural institutions, Vancouver's strategies to engage disengaged people, Cork's innovative use of its Learning Festival, etc.  I wonder how these innovations relate to the argument set out in this Policy Challenge paper.Do you agree with the conditions that favour social innovation identified by John.

For my part, I wonder how our views on creativity and building a learning cullture in a community over time relate to the views set out in this paper. There are questions of time scale and culture involved. The experience of Glasgow with shifts in the roles of its cultural institutions would appear to be relevant to these questions, as of course is the experience of the Nordic countries in promoting lifelong learning over a significant period of time and building a learning culture.

I suggest that we give this paper our close attention.

European Lifelong Learning Indicators (ELLI)

by Peter Kearns - Feb 20 2011 - 04:44

There is a blog by Mike Osborne on the PASCAL website that flags a report, sponsored by a German foundation (Bertelsmann Stiftung) that applies a Composite Learning Index developed by the Canadian Council on Learning to European countries to give assessments of where these countries stand in progressing lifelong learning.

The ELLI report is well worth reading (http://www.elli.org) . The Canadian Council on Learning adopted the UNESCO Delors report concept of Four Pillars (Learning to know; Learning to do; Learning to Live Together; Learning to Be) as the conceptual framework for its Composite Learning Index. While CCL is no longer funded by the Canadian Government, its data base includes data over 5 years for Canadian cities up to 2010 which shows some interesting trends over this period.

The ELLI application of this model is interestinin showing the dynamic interplay of these "pillars" in building social and human capital and leading to a range of individual and social benefits (see p14). The ELLI assessments are further interesting in showing the strong performance of the Nordic countries and the Netherlands with rankings :   1. Denmark   2. Sweden  3. Netherlands  4, Finland.

The ELLI report also flags that these countries also lead on a number of other international indexes : the Global Competitiveness Index; the Consumer Health Index, and the Corruption Index. While ELLI does cite assessments of school performance from the OECD PISA assessments, adult literacy assessments by OECD, assessments of trust in the World Values Study, and Innovation Index rankings these could be added to the indexes cited by ELLI (I cited these in an appendix titled "The Nordic Way" included in a 2006 report I wrote for Adult Learning Australia. I am happy to send this document to anyone intersted)

Strong performance across this range of indicators is of course very relevant to perfornance in a knowledge economy. OECD has recognised the strong performance of the Nordic countries in implementing coherent and comprehensive policies for lifelong learning.

         -  In 2001 OECD observed that " The Nordic countries stand out with good performance across multiple sectors".

          - In 2003 in its report on Adult Learning Policies and Practices OECD further observed that "Denmark, Finland, Norway Sweden and the United Kingdom have a broader vision of the concept of lifelong learning for personal, professional, economic, and social reasons............."

There are therefore questions for PIE as to what has driven the strong performance of the Nordic countries in progressing lifelong learning with the spectrum of benefits in the other indexes cited by ELLI ( and those I have added).

ELLI does not explore this question in any depth but notes relevant characteristics of the Nordic countries (p37), and then comments briefly on the long history of Sweden in this development going back to the Folk schools established in 1868. Some of the Swedish papers from the 2010 PASCAL Ostersund Conference provide interesting insights into approaches adopted by Swedish cultural institutions that progress lifelong learning opportunities for disadvantaged groups including unemployed people involved in wage subsidy programs. This suggests that considering the links between democracy, lifelong learning, and labour market policies is a productive area for reflection.

These would be value for the PIE dialogue in addressing some of the questions thrown up by the ELLI report. Are there aspects of the experience of the Nordic countries relevant to progressing lifelong learning in our cities?

Policy alignment in sustainable learning city development

by Peter Kearns - Feb 25 2011 - 05:09

Peter Welsh in a blog on 7 February suggested that policy should be regarded as a sixth theme in my Framework of Key Themes. This theme was then picked up in John Tibbitt's PASCAL Policy Challenge Paper entitled Localism, place-making and social innovation.  The current interest in devolution and localisatrion policies in some countries such as the UK is the context for the current debate on concepts such as The Big Society.

A further important dimension resides in policy alignment between long term strategies for learning city initiatives, and those of the responsible local government authority, e.g. city council. A good example is provided by the Hume Global Learning Villa where a strategic plan for the Village to 2030 is aligned with the Council's strategic plan for the same period (Learning Together 2030: Shaping Lifelong Learning in Hume City to 2030). This document can be downloaded from the Council's website while print copies will be mailed to any participating city that wishes to have a print copy, if you provide me with an address for mailing.

Policy alignment of strategic planning in this way can support the long term sustainability of learning city initiatives. A 20 year strategic vision has value in enabling measureable progress to be assessed in key areas such as extending participation in learning and raising school achiewvement.

The Hume GLV also has a 3 year Action Plan for 2010-2013 as a step towards progressing this long term vision. Alignment of the Village and Council objectives is supporeted by joint meetings between the Advisory Board and Council members, annual dinners, and the communication strategy of the Village.

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