Where Do Lifelong Learning Cities in Korea Stand? – From the Perspective of a Learning Society Orientation

Abstract

The learning city aims for a just learning society, emphasising the subjective participation of citizens and providing them with equal learning opportunities. The purpose of the paper is to examine, through a literature review method, whether Korea’s lifelong learning cities have achieved the formation of a learning society. In Korea learning cities have led to the provision of more learning opportunities for citizens and improved the quality of education programmes. There also exists a movement for citizens to participate in the learning city project as citizen activists. However, it is not yet possible to assess that most learning cities are developed and built by citizens’ engagement. Moreover, there is even a tendency for inequality to be intensified in lifelong education. Therefore, Korea’s learning cities will need to further solidify their citizen-led perspective, including democratic decision-making and the free expression of opinions by citizens, in order to move toward a just learning society.