Street level Learning and the Learning Neighbourhood
Why we need a sociology of Learning Cities
One of the first pieces I wrote on Policies for Places concerned the close relationship between learning and place. My contention was that learning in all kinds of manifestations is vital for the making and re-making of places. Its role can be extensive and complex and yet is often not explicitly acknowledged in development policies and planning for cities, towns and communities. Learning can promote social cohesion and strengthen citizenship. It can aid inclusion of excluded groups and help sustain them as active community members. And now, when cities are facing major challenges from recovery from the pandemic, changing patterns of work, changes in technology and from the environment, that role is likely to be all the more crucial.
There are though strong signs that cities are becoming more interested in learning in their policymaking. Emphasising the role of learning both for economic development and for social well-being has its champions. The burgeoning Learning Cities movement (UNESCO’s Global Network of Learning Cities now has over 350 member cities in 79 different countries) is predicated on the need for cities to commit to promoting and creating lifelong learning opportunities for all if they are to achieve sustainably and inclusive economic and social development for their citizens. Other organisations such as the Pascal International Observatory through their Learning City Networks are actively sharing effective practice for promoting lifelong learning in diverse settings around the world.
Cities have the power to drive lifelong learning policies across their communities. Such policies take many forms from extending learning infrastructure and promoting partnerships for innovation and entrepreneurship to help secure cities’ position in a changing economic environment. The concern here in this essay is to focus on bringing the learning city notion to a more local neighbourhood level and explore questions about building skills for local economic and social development in the community. The focus is on initiatives aimed at producing bottom-up change in local communities and neighbourhoods.
Street-level learning
The concept of the learning neighbourhood brings the Learning City idea down to a level which for many is the ‘actually existing’ manifestation of the learning city. Some cities have stressed the neighbourhood as the focus for the implementation of their learning city policies. For example, the City of Cork Learning City defines a learning neighbourhood as
‘an area that has an on-going commitment to learning, providing inclusive and diverse learning opportunities for whole communities through partnership and collaboration’.
Whilst many cities like Cork have made significant steps to make a reality of this concept, my concern here is with what might be called street level learning. How would residents come to recognize they were part of a learning neighbourhood? What would be the signs that there was a culture of learning in the area? What kinds of lived experience might lead to participation in learning? What kinds of learning activities make a difference to residents individually and to the neighbourhood collectively? Does the neighbourhood feel different as a result?
There are some clues for addressing such questions in discussions about the nature of learning in communities and from reports from places which have been prominent in the development of the learning neighbourhood concept.
Learning in the community
We need to explore what we mean by learning in the community.
It is tempting to see learning in the community as learning which occurs as people go about their daily lives and as somehow incidental and unplanned, arising from casual social encounters or participation in activities such sports or hobbies which are not undertaken with any ‘learning’ intention in mind.
Clearly though learning in the community is much broader than this. Learning is happening all the time in a wide variety of situations. Within the daily round there are various situations in which people may take responsibility for pursuing their own learning or that of others. Learning is often deliberate and with a clear purpose in mind. For example, learning may occur as a result of life events such as childbirth, redundancy or accidents when people decide they need extra knowledge or skills to cope with the consequences. It may occur when members of a community group face issues about leadership or the acquisition and management of resources. People may pursue their own learning projects through participation in short courses offered in workplaces or by community associations or interest groups.
A recent survey estimates that in the UK 2 in 5 people have undertaken some form of learning in the past 3 years. That proportion may well now be higher as a result of widespread availability of digital and social media since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The key point about learning in the community is that it is voluntary, self-motivated and self-generating. Adults choose to engage in learning activities, even allowing that circumstances influencing that choice may not be within their control.
It is also important to appreciate that learning in the community does not imply a distinction between formal education institutions and ‘the community’. Schools and colleges are key parts of local communities. Such institutions can be important venues for learning in the community just as institutional outreach may support courses in other community buildings and associations.
Community learning
The description above sees learning as essentially the individual acquisition of knowledge and skills. Community learning however also carries with it the idea of a more collective approach to learning consistent with the more familiar concept of community development. Community learning in this sense is about helping communities to adapt to new pressures and meet the challenge of change. It is to give people confidence and the capacity to tackle issues affecting their localities such as poverty, housing, health and community safety and develop working partnerships with other agencies concerned with these and other social and economic issues.
Learning infrastructure
The basis of any learning neighbourhood must be in the opportunity it can offer for participation in learning activity. There must be a suitable learning infrastructure available. This might be in already present local community assets or through purpose-built facilities dedicated to the provision of learning opportunities.
An early adopter of this latter approach was the Hume Global Learning Village project. Hume is a city outside Melbourne, Australia which took what was at the time ((around 1999) a radical approach to community building by focusing on learning as the key to social and economic well-being. Hume City Council was able to bring key organisations within the city together to create a resource beyond the reach of existing organisations on their own. The model has coordinated partnerships between different levels of government, local businesses and agencies to successfully deliver a better result in the public interest.
The Hume model illustrates the crucial role for an appropriate learning infrastructure to support such initiatives. Central to the Hume project was the one-stop community hub, established in one of the poorest areas of the city and lacking many community assets such as a public library. The hub was designed to cater for community needs, access to IT and to a wide network of organisations including skills shops, colleges and universities. A second learning centre has been built in another district of the city with a focus more on childcare, a range of health care and educational services as well as access to the networks outlined above. ’Spokes’ from the hub extend to other fast-growing areas of the city.
Neighbourhood learning infrastructure can of course be based in existing community assets such as schools, colleges and public libraries. The pandemic saw many authorities experimenting with education learning hubs, and there are examples of newly built learning campuses as central features of expanding communities. A learning campus will likely embrace primary and secondary schools, libraries and facilities for community learning, employment advice and public health.
The City of Cork Learning City approach to learning neighbourhoods shows how close engagement with communities and flexible partnerships between government and third-sector organisations can enthuse services and residents alike to find innovative ways to respond to locally identified learning needs without the need for purpose-built infrastructure. There are learning opportunities presented in local workplaces, in public spaces, in community groups and through outreach activities from colleges and higher education.
Learning Culture
Securing community buy-in for participation in learning depends not only upon suitable learning infrastructure but also on the provision of a broad range of opportunities that are directly relevant to the needs, interests and aspirations of neighbourhood residents. A learning neighbourhood needs to be built on a local culture that encourages learning throughout life to acquire knowledge and skills needed at different stages of the life-course.
A culture which supports and encourages learning rests on attitudes and beliefs about the value of learning not only in terms of formal educational provision but which also recognising the benefits of learning from more informal community settings. The Learning Festival is one approach which some cities have adopted (see for example Wyndham in Victoria, Australia and Limerick and Cork in Ireland). The main goal of Wyndham’s festival is to
‘bring people together through the fun of learning. It aims to inspire communities to explore new experiences whilst advocating for lifelong learning across all age groups from Early Years to Seniors ‘.
The development of a local learning culture is also a way of helping the neighbourhood community to face challenges presented by environmental concerns, public health and well-being and economic sustainability. Local learning opportunities can promote entrepreneurship, advocacy partnership skills and recognize local economic opportunities offered by local circular economies and the application of new technologies for local benefit.
Neighbourhoods for learning
Learning neighbourhoods are often the outcomes of broader city-level learning city policies and practices. I return to the questions I posed in the first section of this essay to ask what the actuality of the learning neighbourhood on the ground is. This is probably as much a question for anthropology or urban sociology as it is about learning.
There is a sense in which cities and neighbourhoods themselves can be seen as a learning resource as people go about their daily business. We can look at neighbourhoods as places for learning, as providers of opportunities for ‘street-level’ learning in addition to, or alongside provision of learning sites and opportunities and encouragement of participation in lifelong learning. Learning is both a process arising in encounters from everyday living and from intentional encounters through learning provision to extend and re-direct individuals and communities to alternative learning. Thus place becomes an important factor in understanding the character and functioning of learning neighbourhoods.
Jane Jacobs urged us ‘to keep eyes on the street’. There is a job to be done to better unpack the complex relationship between learning and daily living to give a richer meaning to the concept of the learning neighbourhood. As Borer (2013) observes urban sociologists tend to study cities with a wide-angle lens. The same may be said of the Learning Cities movement. The actual experiences of being in the city have often been assumed rather than the subject of detailed analysis (but see the Learning in the City projects led by the University of Bristol). The lived experience may also give insights into how learning infrastructures emerge, are accessed and shaped by individuals to support and provide particular forms of learning in cities and neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods, as places are part of this experience. We need to understand this if public policy is to effectively augment lived experience for the accessing of relevant learning for individuals and communities.
Further reading
Michael Borer (2013): Being in the city: the Sociology of Urban Experiences, Sociology Compass vol7 no 11.
Keri Facer and Magdalena Buchczyk (2019:) Towards a research agenda for the ‘actually existing’ Learning City, Oxford Review of Education, vol 45 no 2