Learning cities: Developing inclusive, prosperous and sustainable urban communities

Abstract

This special issue of the International Review of Education (IRE) has been stimulated by the initiative of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in developing the International Platform of Learning Cities (IPLC). UIL’s plans to facilitate the establishment of such a platform are now well advanced and it will be launched in Beijing in October 2013. The platform has the overall aim to create a global network to mobilise cities and to demonstrate how to use their resources effectively in every sector to develop and enrich all their human potential to foster lifelong personal growth, the development of equality and social justice, the maintenance of harmonious social cohesion, and the creation of sustainable prosperity (UIL 2013). The underpinning ideas of the IPLC and the development of learning cities are not new. As has been suggested elsewhere (Longworth and Osborne 2010), the idea of learning being place-based and focused on the region, city, town or community has existed for a long time. The notion of a learning city can be traced back to ancient Greece some 2,500 years ago, although it was not labelled as such until the late 20th century. The modern concept of a learning city/region originated from that of a ‘‘learning society’’. In 1972, the report of the International Commission on the Development of Education to UNESCO – Learning to Be: The World of Education Today and Tomorrow (Faure et al. 1972) – put forward the concept of a ‘‘learning society’’ and