The aim of this study is to analyse how formal adult education in Sweden is enacted locally. For this analysis, the data consist of a nationwide survey sent to Swedish municipalities, background data on municipalities from public statistics and interviews with representatives of 20 municipalities. Swedish formal adult education, which includes…

Our research is a comparative qualitative study. The material has been gathered from the cities of Helsinki and Catania. The target cities showcase varied successes and models of smart cities. In the cities, key people involved in the smart city concept--with different kinds of professional backgrounds--were interviewed, both individually and in…

Most learning takes place in communities, neighbourhoods and workplaces. Here practical solutions to big problems work or fall down. We may call this the iron law of social learning, recognised in "community development", "community capacity-building", "workplace", "work-based" and…

Long-term demographic trends, combined with low productivity and pressure on public finances have set in place the preconditions for a major revolution in public services. Governments face new demands including for security which will lead to more centralization, but social and environmental services for a more complex society call for greater…

This article discusses what kinds of organisational and change processes take place when shifting to customer-oriented service concept, here called "third generation services". Our interest lies in the learning process that produces the development of services in cities and regions in new ways and how to develop services in practice so…

During the 1990s, the UK Learning City Network was a large and influential movement with government support, the most significant national body of its kind anywhere. Yet, less than a decade later, it was in decline and now no longer exists. But while few UK towns or cities any longer use the term "learning city", the notion lives on as…

This article reviews the rationales underpinning learning cities, examines the related conceptual development that arises from the literature, reviews progress made in building learning cities in international communities and synthesises the major strategies adopted. The article also points out the challenges and barriers, and it concludes with…