National Adult Literacy Database

The authors examine the concept of learning cities, defined as communities where lifelong learning is explicitly used as an organizing principle and social goal in order to foster healthier, more inclusive, better educated cities.

They focus in particular on the efforts of two cities: Vancouver, British Columbia, which adopted a lifelong learning strategy in 2006; and Jena, in central Germany, which responded to the loss of its major employer by transforming itself into a learning city.

The authors note that measuring a city’s progress in achieving lifelong learning goals can be difficult but is made possible by using the Composite Learning Index (CLI) developed by the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). The CLI considers four dimensions of learning: learning to know, which includes the development of skills and knowledge needed to function in the world; learning to do, referring to the acquisition of applied skills that are often used in the workplace; learning to live together, which includes respect for others and an appreciation of diversity; and learning to be, which refers to the cultivation of body, mind and spirit.