Our Networks
Core to fulfilling PASCAL’s civic and educational mission, is networking across national, regional and disciplinary boundaries. The PASCAL Learning Cities Network (LCN) is one of our core projects, and has facilitated decades worth of PASCAL International Exchanges (e.g. the PIE programme).
Its role is to bring together cities, regions, researchers, and practitioners who are working to embed lifelong learning into urban and community development, and sharing via co-badged and standalone webinars, events and publications (e.g. briefing papers, blogs and handbooks).
Our networks, LCN themes and wider PASCAL meetings, serve the functions of:
Knowledge Exchange and Peer Learning
Providing website, Teams space and meting spaces for cities to share policies, practices, and innovations in building learning communities.
Facilitating city-to-city dialogue, case studies, and workshops on how learning can tackle local challenges (economic, social, cultural, environmental).
Research and Policy Development
Supporting comparative research using learning city frameworks; including indicators, governance models, and impact.
Informing policy recommendations for local governments and global bodies (e.g., UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, regional governments, ministries of Education & grassroots lifelong learning NGOs).
Linking Learning to Sustainable Development
Connecting learning initiatives to the UN SDGs, and furthering educational and research partnerships with a sustainability focus (e.g. Nurture through Nature follow-on research partnerhsips).
Highlighting the urgency of inclusive learning ecosystems across the lifespan which address inequality, health, climate change, and digital transformation.
Global Partnerships and Influence
Together, strengthening the global role of PASCAL by connecting cities to international networks (e.g., UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities).
This high-level stakeholder engagement across regional hubs (both academic and governmental) allows us to build new and prodcutive partnerships between academia, municipalities, civil society, as well as the private sector/ social enterprises.
The Learning Cities Network is PASCAL’s practical bridge between research and real-world urban policy, making lifelong learning a driver for sustainable and inclusive city development.