This book explores the mental and social landscape of the city of today and tomorrow; the way in which people think, interact, work together, learn and live with and among each other. Written to address the urgent need for a guide to the principles and practices of lifelong learning, the topics covered include: an introduction to the idea of learning cities policies and strategies for the learning city, including examples form around the world how to activate learning, involve stakeholders and encourage citizen participation in a learning city or region. Written by one of the world’s foremost thinkers in the field, this book is highly readable and easily accessible to anyone interested in the issues addressed. Workers in local, regional and national government, academics and students of lifelong learning, in addition to anyone with an interest in the future of cities and communities will find this a truly invaluable resource and guide to a way of thinking that many see as the way to a better tomorrow.

This indispensible book for managers, professionals, administrators and stakeholders in local and regional authorities describes how and why learning cities, towns and regions are helping to create a better future for all, and the tools and learning materials that will help them do so.

This open access book presents contemporary perspectives on the role of a learning society from the lens of leading practitioners, experts from universities, governments, and industry leaders. The think pieces argue for a learning society as a major driver of change with far-reaching influence on learning to serve the needs of economies and societies. The book is a testimonial to the importance of ‘learning communities.’ It highlights the pivotal role that can be played by non-traditional actors such as city and urban planners, citizens, transport professionals, and technology companies. This collection seeks to contribute to the discourse on strengthening the fabric of a learning society crucial for future economic and social development, particularly in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease.

This book proposes an alternative strategy to improve and sustain prosperity, through the creation of an entrepreneurial culture in learning cities or city regions. The edited collection provides insights into how entrepreneurship, education, job creation and social inclusion can be aligned through entrepreneurial learning, in the context of territorial development. With rich and varied contributions from a wide field, including policy makers, entrepreneurs, an investment banker, leaders of universities and councils, the voluntary sector, scientists, educators and students, it reviews and assesses how learning cities and regions may become more prosperous by investing in the development of entrepreneurial skills throughout lifelong learning. Reinforced by examples on developing and retaining entrepreneurial people, this book contributes to our understanding of how entrepreneurial learning can be fostered in different city and city-region contexts. It makes an interesting contribution to the field in terms of mapping out complex issues and testing the practical validity of the concept, while also providing rich and insightful case studies centred on the Welsh experience with entrepreneurial learning city regions. The high quality international contributions demonstrate the new worldwide interest in developing an entrepreneurial culture for the benefit of a city or region, rather than an entrepreneurial mind-set for individual benefit. This fascinating subject will be of interest to many social scientists, policymakers, and practitioners. It will be found especially valuable for professionals involved in economic, inclusive and sustainable city or regional development.

Finding innovative and useful measurement practices for community development projects is gaining in importance as policymakers increase the demands for accountability. This book examines some of the latest efforts to document the effectiveness of local development efforts. The types of documentation differ by types of project, jurisdiction, and country but they have a common focus of recognizing the importance of the Community Capitals framework. Public agencies in the past have often measured development successes by the number of jobs created and/or amount of private investment forthcoming. However, the impacts of community development reach much deeper than those indicators. Strengthening local decision-making capacity is a common component of development efforts as is engaging populations that, in the past, have not been active in decision-making. These and other considerations are explored in more detail by authors in this volume. Local policymakers and practitioners will be continually pressured to provide more documentation of outcomes and readers will gain considerable insights into alternative approaches that can be included in projects but can also see the common elements needed to create a solid measurement system. International insights are a special strength of the discussions in this book. This book was published as a special issue of Community Development.

This book endeavours to outline case studies that promote sustainable Local Economic Development (LED) initiatives. It is generally believed that local governments are the foot soldiers of LED. However, this seems to be a myth, as local governments in South Africa and elsewhere have not yet fulfilled this mandate and have been struggling for several years to implement LED initiatives. The distinctive merit of this book lies in the way it combines the South African context with the wider international development context in ways that there is a flow of information and ideas both ways. The book is an essential part of this sequence of ideas development and action at a critical time for strategic action directed at a sustainable future. It showcases case studies and responses to the impacts of globalisation as a bridge between urban/rural and institutional action and reveals avenues for local government leadership in communities, research, student engagement and wider interactions.

As individuals and societies try to respond to fundamental economic and social transformation, the field of adult learning and education is rapidly getting increased attention and new topics for research on adult learning have emerged. This collection of articles from the International Encyclopedia of Education 3e offers practitioners and researchers in the area of adult learning and education a comprehensive summary of main developments in the field. The 45 articles provide insight into the historical development of the field, its conceptual controversies, domains and provision, perspectives on adult learning, instruction and program planning, outcomes, relationship to economy and society and its status as a field of scholarly study and practice. - Saves researchers time in summarizing in one place what is otherwise an interdisciplinary field in cognitive psychology, personality, sociology, and education - Level of presentation focuses on critical research, leaving out the extraneous and focusing on need-to-know information - Contains contributions from top international researchers in the field - Makes MRW content affordable to individual researchers