Social Capital, Lifelong Learning and the Management of Place

An International Perspective

Michael Osborne, Kate Sankey, Bruce Wilson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781134089499
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

With contributions from around the world, this book brings together inter-related research from three fields: social capital, place management and lifelong learning regions. Providing valuable insight into the management of place and the development of learning at a regional level, the book presents international research that underpins the development and implementation of policies and practices that improve the quality of living and working circumstances at both local and regional levels.

International in scope and at the cutting edge of research into this growing field that links lifelong learning to place, the book will appeal both to academics undertaking research in this burgeoning field and to those involved in lifelong learning at local, national and international level.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Mike Osborne, Kate Sankey and Bruce Wilson

In the face of an increasingly globalised world, in which sudden shifts in investment can cause the loss of hundreds of jobs from a community, it is widely accepted that the quality of social relationships and social cohesion, described as social capital, can be an important resource for sustaining communities’ resilience in difficult times. Both journalists and academics recount case studies of how social linkages have been the key resource as communities take stock of their situation and rebuild local economies, perhaps becoming more prosperous than they were before. Frequently, the case studies focus on how the social linkages have facilitated community learning, and on the significance of place in focusing both efforts to build anew, and to influence the policies of local and regional governments.

These stories have pushed the concept of social capital, made popular by Robert Putnam (2000), into the realms of being an important dimension of local and regional policy development. It has coincided with the strong interest, since the work of the OECD in the mid-1990s, in investment in learning as a critical contribution to local and regional economic development.

How does it work? Can the claims made for social capital and learning regions be empirically described and demonstrated? Are these concepts interdependent, really different sides of the same coin? What is the significance, conceptually and empirically, of the focus on place, on a particular community, neighbourhood, city or regional policy development and implementation?

This is an important question for the PASCAL Observatory, an international organisation concerned with matters of place management, social capital and learning regions that was established by three regional governments and two universities in 2003.¹ Efforts to address this question have been explored at four PASCAL conferences, at which there have been efforts both to promote and to analyse how the concepts of social capital and learning regions can be applied through coherent, ‘place-based’ policy development and implementation. The various contributions at these conferences, as well as other forums, have demonstrated widespread interest in these issues in all parts of the world.

Yet the research evidence remains relatively undeveloped and fragmentary, and reflects a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. A review of papers presented in the PASCAL conferences reveals a number of dimensions to the discussion:

• uncertainty about the meanings, and the linkages between, the three key concepts of social capital, learning regions and place management,

• issues of methodology,

• challenges in linking research evidence and policy formation,

• linking research evidence and programmatic action,

• questions about the transferability of ideas and concepts from one region to another.

This book aims to contribute to clarifying these issues through bringing together inter-related research literature from three fields: social capital, learning cities/ regions and place management. It builds on two previous volumes in this series (Osborne et al. 2004; Edwards et al. 2006), and a third volume being published in parallel with this (Osborne et al. 2007). Each of these volumes relates to current themes of research within the domain of lifelong learning. In the case of this collection, we link lifelong learning to social capital, the development of regions and the management of place. Specifically, it draws upon and develops presentations made at the third international PASCAL Observatory conference in October 2005, and presents research on the development and implementation of policies and practices that improve the quality of living and working circumstances at local and regional levels, recognising the importance of social capital and the necessity of partnership for the successful implementation of policy. The book focuses on regional initiatives, particularly those which explicitly embrace lifelong learning, as a framework for developing a systematic planning framework that may encompass administrative, cultural, geographical, physical and/or political perspectives. Like the work of the PASCAL Observatory itself, this involves looking at life from the perspective of people and places, rather than separate programmes delivered for them.

The book begins with this introduction and is followed by chapters (Catts, Falk, Hess and Adams and Kilpatrick and Abbott) that focus on approaches to research, their merits and limitations, and connections with policy making. Timms reminds us that in discussions about social relationships and communities, new information and communications already influence patterns of relationships, and that online communities will affect our understandings of social capital. Sabatini follows this with a detailed review of the literature and research on social capital, particularly as it relates to economic development, and has a number of proposals about future research in this area. The next chapters (Jütte, Hall et al. and Zuwarimwe, Wallin, Ilieva, Inman and Swanson, and Williams) focus on specific pieces of empirical research related to social capital and learning regions, working with different examples of place. We conclude with three chapters, two of which (Doyle and Van Beilen et al.) consider specific themes important both in the context of the development of social capital and place: the role of universities, and sustainable development. There follows a concluding chapter. Throughout these chapters permeate three concepts integral to the concerns of PASCAL: social capital, place management and learning cities/regions.

The concept of social capital has become a popular conceptual vehicle that is used extensively throughout the social science community (see Putnam 1993, 2000; Baron et al. 2001; Field 2005) and refers broadly to three forms of connections and ties:

• bonding connections, which bring together people from a very similar background in close ties, such as family and close friends,

• bridging ties, which bring together people from rather similar backgrounds but more loosely, such as people with a shared interest (a hobby, a job, or living in the same neighbourhood),

• linking ties, which bring together people from dissimilar backgrounds.

Social capital has multiple attractions for different communities. For people working in business growth agencies, the idea of social capital is highly congruent with policies designed to promote innovation and dynamism, for example through business clusters and sectoral networks, where entrepreneurs and managers share ideas. Similarly, people working in regional government agencies often find the idea of social capital sits comfortably alongside policies designed to promote local economic regeneration and social development, where partnership working and community engagement are seen as central.

The second broad concept that we use is that of a learning city/region and this links closely to ideas within the realm of social capital, especially those related to trust and the role played by co-operative and collective learning (Sankey and Osborne 2006). The term ‘learning region’ has been used throughout the world to express the idea that multiple players have a role in promoting and facilitating learning that develops the economic and social well-being of their locality (Florida 1995). In recent documents produced by the European Commission amongst others, the concept refers to a region, city, urban or rural area, regardless of whether its identity is defined in administrative, cultural, geographical, physical or political terms (Longworth 2001). Following the impetus of work sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 1973, 2001) and others, there exist around the world numerous entities that describe themselves as ‘learning cities’ or ‘learning regions’, and in many countries well-developed networks of such cities and regions are working together in collaborative fashion. More recently in Europe, following the R3L initiative of the European Commission (2002), the appendage of ‘lifelong’ has frequently appeared alongside ‘learning region’, enhanced recently by a project that seeks to develop a sustainable network of lifelong learning regions.²

The third concept of place, or place-based, management has become particularly influential amongst government agencies (in Australia, especially, see Stewart-Weeks 2002), responsible for providing services to the same or overlapping groups of citizens and communities. A clearer focus on economic and social outcomes has meant that achieving greater focus on a local or regional framework for service delivery has been seen as an increasingly valuable policy lever for programme implementation. Place management uses the geographic dimension of data analysis (from census data, for example) to highlight the locational distribution of client groups, and the particular characteristics of needs for services. It assumes that, once patterns of needs are identified service providers can collaborate on developing appropriate programmes, which integrate the delivery of services. This kind of collaboration might involve both different levels of government (national, regional and local) as well as different agencies and types of agencies from the same level of government. A broad range of non-governmental service providers also have significant interests in this approach. A critical element of this approach involves community engagement in identifying the specific patterns of needs. Thus in the case of the UK, and Scotland in particular, it has resonance with the concept and process of community planning. This is a policy approach introduced through the Local Government Act Scotland 2003 (Scottish Executive). There is strong similarity with the Victorian government in approach, as the government seeks to bring governance closer to people and place. This raises questions about the nature of the relationship between place management and community engagement, and how this might strengthen social capital and in consequence the efficacy of social and sustainable development policies.

Overview of the contributions

In this collection we have brought together research that focuses upon the three concepts, drawing upon work within an international domain. The contributors come from various backgrounds, and varying perspectives on, and approaches to, the issues under review. We focus on that work within the domain of social capital that has closest links to the development of lifelong learning in a regional context. In turn, we look to research within the field of place management that offers a quite specific framework, essentially geographic, for programme measurement. This includes the various sets of indicators that can be used within a regional or local frame to evaluate the impact of policy measures.

Catts begins by pointing out that the conditions under which we learn to co-operate matter a great deal to the outcomes. Co-operation, trust and reciprocity depend on norms built over time, and on a network of interdependent co-operative arrangements that makes it costly for a person to exploit the reciprocity principle, by taking but not returning. However, Putnam also identifies another form of social capital that is hierarchical and in which people are coerced into co-operating. In this form the oppressed are left with little hope or opportunity. He suggests that the implications of these theories can be explored through efforts to quantify the nature of social capital. His chapter demonstrates how this might be done through defining categories of social capital, discussing criteria for selecting indicators of social capital at national and community level and in research, and identifying limitations and critiques of such indicators. The potential of quantitative indicators of social capital for national policy evaluation, and for policy implementation are assessed. Conclusions are illustrated in the context of schooling.

Ian Falk addresses directly some of the issues which arise from the apparent separation of quantitative and qualitative work. He focuses on the role and nature of evidence in policy formation and evaluation processes, arguing strongly for the importance of an approach which focuses on interactivity, the situational dimension of policy formation and implementation. Falk draws on some research with policy makers to draw out their understandings of what counts as evidence, and how it influences the advice which they develop. Two broad conclusions emerged: firstly, the focus on evidence applies typically only to promoting the need for policy, rather than to the nature of the evidence required to develop, implement and evaluate policy. His research identified also three levels of difference in understandings about what might count as an evidence base, with the overall conclusion that there is considerable divergence in the ways in which policy makers understand evidence and its role in the policy process.

Falk concludes by suggesting that one way of resolving uncertainty about the value of quantitative and qualitative research is to recognise that the most important question is the question about policy effectiveness to which an answer is being sought. Different kinds of evidence will be relevant to different kinds of questions. The connectedness of social ...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Contributors
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Quantitative indicators of social capital
• Chapter 3 What should count as ‘evidence’ for effective ‘situated policy’?
• Chapter 4 Governance and community strengthening
• Chapter 5 Community efficacy and social capital
• Chapter 6 Identity, local community and the internet
• Chapter 7 The empirics of social capital and economic development
• Chapter 8 Co-operation, networks and learning regions
• Chapter 9 Communities of practice and purpose
• Chapter 10 Beyond the social capital rhetoric – an investigation of the use of social networks in the co-ordination of intra-enterprise activities
• Chapter 11 Lifelong learning
• Chapter 12 Place-centric and future-oriented learning in the local village context
• Chapter 13 Cities as engines of growth
• Chapter 14 Rationalising public place commodification and the ramifications of this choice in Alberta, Canada
• Chapter 15 ‘Cultural presence’ and disadvantaged groups
• Chapter 16 Sustainable development
• Chapter 17 Conclusion
• Index