Why is PENR3L necessary?

Propelled by the forces of globalisation, rapid change and the need for social inclusion, national, regional and local governments are transforming their view of education. The imperative to increase social, intellectual and human capital in order to survive in an increasingly dynamic and complex employment and community environment now drives the development agenda. The aim is not just to provide learning, lifelong, for all citizens of a city, region and nation, but to actively create the culture of learning that will encourage and enable them to participate in it continuously. Education is no longer the preserve of the education department, it pervades every sphere of local and regional government and affects the way that governance is organised and managed.

This challenges the traditional way in which local and regional authorities are administered. Changing cultures is a huge task. It entails more participation, more contribution from stakeholders, more bottom-up, informed decision-making, more local, national and global vision, more understanding, more wisdom, more knowledge and insight, to mention just a few. The management of place becomes more urgent.

Hence the terms ‘Learning City’, ‘Learning Town’, ‘Learning Region’ and ‘Learning Community’ are rapidly becoming commonplace in debate at all levels of government. More than 50 cities and regions in the United Kingdom now describe themselves under that label, as do cities in other countries of Europe, such as Gothenburg, Rotterdam, Dublin, Brno, Limerick and Livorno, to name but a few. Espoo leads an informal Finnish network of some 20 ‘learning municipalities.’ It is also catching on in the rest of the world. China has requested its 61 largest cities to develop learning city plans, and all cities and towns in Victoria (Australia) have become learning cities and towns. This is the beginning of a large and rapidly growing movement to respond to modern day needs.

In some universities too, there has been an awakening of awareness of the potential of the learning cities/regions movement to stimulate action in this field, and to provide the research, development, information and assistance that communities and cities need in order to implement the right policies and strategies in local government.

Such a partnership between town and gown can be extremely fruitful, but it is all too rare. The major objective of PENR3L, therefore, is to enlarge the PASCAL European network of cities, regions and university expertise centres that can work together to provide solutions and knowledge, keep local and regional authorities informed and make contact with similar initiatives elsewhere in the world.

How does PENR3L work?

The project has  

• built up a database of key local and regional authority people and organisations through contact with its own partners and with other sources, including the web
• developed publicity and learning materials on learning cities and regions.
• Organised dynamic, interactive workshops for the exchange and sharing of expertise between specialists from both universities and local and regional authorities in Barcelona (25/26 October 2007) and Kaunas (Lithuania) (7/8 December 2007).
• Organised a ground-breaking conference for Limerick from 28-30 May 2008 under the auspices of PENR3L and PASCAL. This will pull together all themes from the workshops and establish the PASCAL European Network. For information about the conference please go to www.ul.ie/dllo/conference/. For further information about PASCAL please click here
• Created a sustainable European network that will continue to provide expertise and services to local and regional authorities in the coming years. Interested people should contact m.osborne@gla.ac.uk