More than schools and skills - learning as part of urban planning

Noting the increasing numbers of cities worldwide who have successfully sought membership of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities I tried in my last essay to draw out the importance of policies for lifelong learning for the development of places and in the renewed urgency of re-thinking ways in which cities provide for their citizens following the challenges to previous norms arising from the Covid pandemic.

Here I will return to the theme of policies for education and learning in city development. I will argue that recent educational policy which, as Hager has argued has in recent decades emphasized what he calls the ‘economic turn’, has not been as helpful as it might have been for the formulation of policies for places, and that both education policy and policies for urban development will benefit from a broader shared understanding of what is meant by learning and its implementation. If the aim of municipal policymaking is to achieve an integrated urban development strategy which, alongside conventional spatial aspects such as transport, environment, housing, and economic development, it must include education.

Experience would suggest that current urban planning does not often seem to connect understandings in education within the knowledge domain in spatial and planning knowledge. For example, an analysis of the knowledge domain of urban planning academics in the US (see Sanchez and Afzalan, 2020) fails to mention education in their topics of interest, although it does include other social policy issues such as health and inequality.

Urban planning gives shape and structure to cities and towns. It is focused on the arrangement and design of buildings, transport systems, public spaces and social and cultural amenities. It has to do with creating conditions for economic development and with the increasing consequences of climate change and environmental carbon emissions. It is about promoting economic wellbeing, livability, and health and safety for residents.

The culture of planning has been changing in recent decades as more and more stakeholders are drawn into formulating responses to the complex issues faced by towns and cities indicated above. Extending the understanding of settings in which education takes place to  include not only in schools and colleges but also in families, peer groups and neighbourhoods should more often inform municipal actions. There is a need to ensure a better overlap between the urban landscape and what might be called the learning landscape. demonstrating that the policy areas and actions in urban development and education overlap both spatially and in content.

So let us consider how first, urban development is relevant to education, and second how education is relevant to urban development.  In short I will draw a distinction between learning in places and learning from places.

Learning in places

Put simply, neighbourhoods, districts and areas within cities form the basic framework of and for educational processes. Urban space provides learning experience. Furthermore, the processes of creating urban space as a rich and varied learning experience are related to questions of urban development and urban planning. Better education is likely to be achieved by incorporating formal and informal education processes in different educational settings in the urban space.

Education is important for a sustainable and inclusive development of neighbourhoods and districts within cities. Educational infrastructure can be a starting point for reducing educational inequalities and costs of social services. Efforts in education can contribute to social and economic stability bringing other benefits to quality of life. Provision of well-located good quality schools can help reduce social segregation and encourage improvement in social and cultural opportunities.

Continuing education

The section above relates primarily but not only to basic initial education in schools and elsewhere in the learning landscape.  The urban landscape also includes workplaces, commercial areas and cultural assets, and the learning landscape needs to embrace those too. The landscape needs to be enhanced to embrace continuing education post-school, in college and higher education and in work to reflect too the importance of upskilling the workforce, facilitating innovation and creative industries to ensure a vibrant and sustainable urban community.

Education policy in many countries prioritizes basic skills and upskilling, a continuing and  a major challenge in the face of new industries and technologies Policies for the promotion of lifelong learning and continuing education are key. Local flexibility, and a clear understanding of ‘place’ are key to improving engagement, recruitment and training of learners, and overcoming practical issues of accessing provision.  Municipalities have a crucial role in locating appropriate places for learning (on-line learning is not attractive to many), and transport arrangements for accessing learning opportunities. Urban planners need to add such features to the urban landscape.

Place-based educational policies can support the development of in-work skills by working with employers to map skill requirements and co-ordinate appropriate provision and addressing gaps that can be met through local and regional programming.  Incentivizing new employers and investment by employers is strengthened by a coordinated local skills development strategy.

But vital though skills are to supporting the local economy and for individual career progression there are other important areas where community education is essential for the delivery of policy objectives in towns and cities.  Not everyone is able to participate in work and training for a variety of reasons, such as poor health and mental health and deprivation and poverty.  Support for individuals and groups is vital, and access to basic education in literacy and computing offer a potential path to participation in social life, accessing services and work opportunities.. Community education is an important component in educational policies, but often receives lower priority, and depend crucially on a place-based approach.

Learning from places: education as part of policy learning

Cities just now are facing several major challenges beyond those outlined above. The most pressing for many are managing the recovery from the COVID pandemic, responding to climate change and reaching zero carbon emission targets, and maximizing value from digital technology and artificial intelligence in city management and development.  

The challenge of delivering a zero carbon city depends on a series of strategic decisions on issues such as building standards, waste disposal, traffic reduction and increasing active travel and pubic transportation.  All of these are potentially contentious and require not only re-shaping city streets and landscapes but also securing behavioral changes on the part of residents and employers. Community education is required to communicate the science and rationale on which policies are based and to secure community support and participation. Listening to Local communities will be important in fitting policy innovation to local contexts. As a recent blog post from LSE put it ‘facts don’t change opinion, social networks, group dialogue and stories do’.

Similarly cities have to work out appropriate strategies for recovery following the pandemic. This has created debate for example, about the size and location of workplaces and influenced demand within the housing market. As a consequence of lockdown people became used to living their lives in more local neighbourhoods, and debates are taking place about the re-vitalization of local communities, about decentralization and localization of services and commercial and cultural facilities. There is an increased awareness of the importance of green space, and access to local natural resources. Travel patterns are changing. Place has to be re-thought, and again community input is vital for municipal learning and policymaking.

The same applies to policies on public health and wellbeing. Re-connecting people to social and community activities is important for individual health and wellbeing. Building inclusive communities is likely to involve support for voluntary action and community involvement in identifying gaps in provision and novel responses to filling them. 

The third challenge identified above relates to cities’ collection and utilization of ‘big data’ in the light of rapidly expanding digital technologies and artificial intelligence. Such technologies can assist in such matters as efficient traffic management or public transportation, to the monitoring of city performance and  evaluating policy effects. Data systems can identify changes in behaviour and to general social conditions. Cities can use data internally, or as an open data resource spanning census data and evidence relating to core issues such as those identified above. An open approach can facilitate multi-agency working from a common database.

Smart data systems are becoming ever more sophisticated and complex. There is a risk that these systems can be driven by data specialists rather than based on the policy issues cities would wish to confront. There is a need for continuing organizational learning to ensure legitimate and ethical data collection, and valid interpretation of resulting analysis for policy purposes.

Steps to ensure digital equity amongst the resident population are important in an increasingly digitized world. Obstacles to digital equity can include affordability, digital literacy and consumer experience.  Cities can develop strategies to tackle such constraints including installing public wi-fi and improving access to devices, digital training and clear information. In this way a more informed populous is able to participate in policy discussion from a firm information base.

Conclusion

The discussion in this essay has been about matching up the urban landscape with the learning landscape in towns and cities to the mutual benefit of both city planning and effective learning.  This will be achieved if urban planners and education professionals better understand the contribution each can make to the other.  For city planners, it should indicate that the urban landscape needs to deliver more than sufficient school places and colleges with capacity to deliver an appropriate skills base.  The urban landscape is an essential part of the context in which learning processes occur. The learning landscape embraces learning processes of all kinds.  For educationalists, learning policies and practices should seek to influence the form of the urban landscape.  Learning beyond formal qualifications and skills, embracing community education and continuing learning  enhances the quality of social and cultural life, the economic base for city sustainability and the effectiveness of policymaking. It is essential for the feasibility of delivery on global challenges cities face. Issues and solutions look different from place to place, and that needs to be understood.

Responses to these challenges faced will require re-learning many of the traditional approaches of both planning and education policies and provision.  The spatial dimensions of learning opportunities need recognition, as do learning effects on land use and social planning.

References and further reading

Paul Hagar (2007): Putting Learning in its place  Accessed at https://www.academia.edu/56091164/

Angela Million, Anna Juliane Heinrich and Thomas Coelen eds (2017); Education, Space and Urban Planning, Springer

Frauke Burgdorff (2017) : The Interrelationship between Education and Urban Development in Million et.al. op.cit.

Sanchez and Afzalan (2017): Mapping the Knowledge Domain of Urban Planning, Taylor Francis

Anne Toomey (2023): LSE Impact of Social Science Blog 24.01.23