The Global Approach

UNESCO feedback in the Xploit Final Event

The global approach is based on the global debates on learning cities (UNESCO, UNITED NATIONS, PASCAL, etc.), healthy cities and sustainable cities and is often linked to high-level policy visions at national, regional or even local city level.

Some communities in the process of developing learning community collaboration find it, at some point, attractive to link to global trends, such as learning cities or healthy cities.
Such initiatives usually come from the local or regional decision-makers, often at top level. The aim is to promote the city or region and to benefit from joining relevant global networks.
Such initiatives apparently take the community or city to a higher level, but it depends on to what extent the initiative represents a consensus among community partners and to what extent it penetrates the community.

The linking to global trends can include conferences, events and celebrations which might bring new energy into the learning community initiative and partnerships, but again it depends on to what extent such events include organisations and citizens involved in the learning community activities.

What are the opportunities, challenges and obstacles in the Global approach?

• The global interest might not represent a need in the community, but merely expresses the political promotion of the city
• In some cases the global focus changes the local government’s focus on the local community
• In some cases the global interest produces a big gap between the local community (the reality) and the global ambitions (the dream)
• The community players might not feel ownership to the high-level political initiatives
• In some cases the global interest participates in the populist rhetoric and in this case it might cause some damage to the community integrity and reliability
• Global networking might be used as a short-cut to success, avoiding the hard work of local community development

• The global initiative can express an interest in taking the local initiatives further among a number of stakeholders and can offer new energy and inspiration to the community at large
• Citizens and organisation can acquire new experience and competences if involved in such global networks
• Global interest can lead to new and interesting partnerships with other communities at global level
• Global initiatives can link directly to accomplishments and strong initiatives in the local community, for example in the field of citizens’ health
• Global activities might offer new forms of motivation to partners and citizens in the learning community initiative
• Global interest might act as lever for new initiatives in the community