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Learning Cities Approaches to Regional and Community Development
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- Key Principles of Learning Cities
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- Objectives of the Learning Cities approach
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- How do Learning Cities achieve these objectives?
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- How does this impact on our approach?
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- How will we achieve these aims?
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- How will the outcomes differ?
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Key Principles of Learning Cities
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To support widening participation in lifelong learning; and
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To harness this learning to promote social and economic regeneration.
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Objectives of the Learning Cities approach
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To support the development of communities which can
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"...develop successfully in a rapidly changing socio- economic environment. ...the learning community is creative in its understanding of its own situation and wider relationships, developing new solutions to new problems"
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(Landry and Matarasso 1998 in DfEE Learning Cities ToolKit).
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How do Learning Cities achieve these objectives?
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Partnership
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By building partnerships within the community which can drive and co-ordinate community responses to community issues, as identified and defined by that community. This will inevitably involve the redefinition of community allegiances, and require development of sector and institutional partnerships which have previously been disharmonious. Such disharmonies may well have been barriers to development in the past.
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Participation
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The literature on Learning Cities stresses the importance of broadening the notion of participation as a means of democratising public policy processes. This goes beyond our remit I suspect, but ownership of process would be core: that the participants of the learning process own and guide that process and that the outcomes belong to them.
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Performance
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"Learning to evaluate process"
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In this model evaluation is not an external 'add on' process geared at providing information on value for money but is a core process driving the Learning Cycle, through which communities:
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Clarify their purpose, priorities and plans;
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Enact processes;
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Identify and develop people;
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Monitor and evaluate actions; and
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Use the evaluation to guide the next stage of the development process.
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How does this impact on our approach?
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In terms of our process as consultants a Learning Cities approach would require:
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that we define ourselves as facilitators;
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that we do not provide solutions, but support processes towards solutions;
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that we relinquish control of the process and instead seek to shape and support it in terms of the needs defined by the participants.
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How will we achieve these aims?
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By:
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Identifying key players.
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Facilitating partnerships.
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Identifying conflicting agendas and helping to find a common consensus.
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Helping individuals, groups, and institutions identify themselves as a cohesive community.
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Supporting the identification and articulation of community issues and needs.
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Supporting the application of the Learning Cycle.
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How will the outcomes differ?
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With a Learning Cities approach the outcomes will be:
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A community with a strong sense of identity which has built its "Social Capital" (Kilpatrick 1999) through the learning process it has undergone during our involvement.
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A set of community structures which can be used to drive future developments and responses to change and through which sharing of resources, skills and expertise can add value to the community (ie if Jenny set up an "EXPORT NETWORK").
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A community with a strong sense of identity which has greater confidence in participating in public debate and thereby influencing public policy.
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An established commonly understood process which will continue to enable the community to respond to change.
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