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The concept of the learning city surfaced in the 1970s and was first formalised during the First International Congress of Educating Cities in Barcelona in 1990; the OECD Conference on Lifelong Learning in 1992 reinforced the focus on cities in operationalising the concept of lifelong learning through harnessing existing disconnected city resources and networks (Morris 2001). In Australia, Victoria was at the forefront of learning city activity being the first region outside Europe to host an OECD Learning Cities and Regions conference. The Victorian Government was also the first Australian government to endorse and provide seed funding to the extent of $750,000.00 per annum over three years to foster learning communities35: the Learning Towns initiative. Since May 2000 ten Learning Towns have been established across Victoria; Geelong was declared a Learning Town in December 2000. Its project – ‘Smart Geelong – The Learning City’ was managed by the Smart Geelong Network through its lead agency, Geelong Adult Training and Education (GATE), an adult and community education provider.

Smart Geelong Network represents a number of organisations involved in education and research. An education and training committee had initially been established in 1994 within the Geelong Chamber of Commerce (‘the Chamber’), currently the largest Chamber of Commerce in Australia. The committee’s establishment reflected the influence of staff within the Chamber with extensive previous

involvement and an abiding commitment to education and training. That committee was temporarily, and unenthusiastically, taken over by the City of Geelong before returning to the Chamber in 1995 and adopting its current form as Smart Geelong Network, a company limited by guarantee, with the aim of providing opportunities for growth in its member organisations by way of capital equipment sharing, consultancies (local, national and international), cost sharing, group purchasing and so forth. At the time of this research, the Chair of Smart Geelong Network was the Vice-President of the Chamber36. Smart Geelong Network was centrally involved

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For comparative purposes $9million per annum over three years was allocated to the LLEN initiative. However the LLEN initiative involves 31 LLEN covering all parts of the State of Victoria whereas the Learning Towns initiative involves linking ten non-metropolitan communities.

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in the implementation of G21 and provides an ‘umbrella’ for the activities of the Research, Lifelong Learning and Health and Wellbeing Pillars within G2137 . In Victoria the decision to implement the Learning Towns initiative through adult and community education providers was based on the rational that they provide a lead role in turning everyday lifelong learning into beneficial social and economic outcomes at a community level (Wong 2002); this approach dovetails neatly with the intent of learning cities: to widen participation in lifelong learning and to promote the regeneration of local regions (The Editors 2003). However, as Morris (2001, p.11) argues the term ‘learning city’ is something of a misnomer that seems to imply a ‘municipal grandiosity’ that is often not present despite the central role of local government in pursuit of the goal. This was evidenced in Geelong where local government initially did not see education as being part of its core business:

We went to the City [representative] . . . and said, ‘We would like the City to proclaim Geelong as Smart Geelong – Learning City’ and she said, ‘What does that mean?’ And I said, ‘Nothing, other than it gives people an idea that the City is interested in what we are doing.’ She said, ‘Oh I don’t know about that.’ And she wouldn’t do it. So I said to the Mayor, after waiting about six months, ‘When . . . are you going to do it?’ He said, ‘I know nothing about it.’ So we made a small presentation to them and he said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do it.’ They put on a reception and they had Geelong proclaimed officially as Smart Geelong – Learning City. Not that it went terribly far as far as the City was concerned but that proclamation is still there. (Matthew, LLEN committee member, 2005)

The LLEN and Learning Towns initiatives both link local and state government in attempts to operationalise lifelong learning; they potentially provide a structure for local government to become increasingly involved in the post compulsory

education and training sector (Snelling 2003). However in Geelong this synthesis has taken time to evolve. In both policy instances there was an assumption within the Geelong community that the City of Greater Geelong would provide leadership in implementation. In neither instance did this occur. When the opportunity to apply for Learning Town funding was announced by the state government it was the networks of the Chamber that successfully bid, in partnership with GATE, to

become the first funded Learning Town in Victoria. The eventual proclamation of Smart Geelong – Learning City by the City of Greater Geelong in December 2000

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As a result of the implementation of G21 the Smart Geelong Network is now reviewing its role and function (De Gilio 2004, pers.comm. 11 May, Smart Geelong Network n.d.). The Geelong Business Network (GBN), a community based and supported organisation that was established in 1985 by the City of Greater Geelong, is also active. It acts as a broker of business networks for small to medium enterprises to promote cooperation, partnerships, alliances and joint commercial action. GBN staff had been closely involved with the LLEN since inception and in 2004 the benefits of working network – to – network lead to a strengthening of this connection.

occurred shortly after state government announced late in 2000 the opportunity for regions to be involved in the first phase of the LLEN implementation, scheduled to occur by mid-2001. Fifteen LLEN were to be established in the first phase; while the City of Greater Geelong called an initial consultation meeting for the

community they did so at the bidding of the Chamber and, subsequent to the meeting, declined to act as the auspicing agent for a LLEN. As such, the Chamber acted as the auspicing agent for SGR LLEN, a situation that did not occur anywhere else in Victoria where local government commonly were deeply involved in

establishing LLEN (Snelling 2003). Similarly, it was not until 2004 and after a consultation process by a new Manager within City management that the City of Greater Geelong even became a member of SGR LLEN. Smaller Councils within SGR LLEN region – particularly Golden Plains Shire which was both a member and acted as local government representative on the SGR LLEN Committee of Management as well as being active in other LLEN – were actively involved from the start. However, the City of Greater Geelong adopted, and for the first three years (the proposed duration of the entire LLEN initiative) maintained the stance, that education – conceptualised as ‘schools’ - would be taken care of by other organisations.

It was acknowledged that there was potential for tension between the LLEN and Learning Town initiatives when LLEN were implemented (Snelling 2003; Wong 2001). Both initiatives are fundamentally concerned with learning, collaboration and local solutions through a community building approach. However, while Learning Towns were aimed at developing learning partnerships and integrating economic and social development (Snelling 2003) for LLEN this work had a focused purpose: to improve education, training and employment outcomes for 15- 19 year olds in the region (Department of Education Employment and Training 2001). Considerable work was undertaken by the LLEN Executive Officer to develop a synthesis once the LLEN was operational: the foundation facilitator of Smart Geelong - Learning City became actively involved in SGR LLEN Working Parties and the G21 Lifelong Learning Pillar which continues to be led by the Executive Officer of the LLEN and auspiced by the Smart Geelong Network. SGR LLEN office is also productively co-located with the Barwon South Western Region Adult, Community and Further Education Regional Council who, from 2005, have been brought more centrally into the Learning Towns initiative through

a funding change signalled by Minister Kosky in Future Directions for Adult and Community Education document (Department of Education & Training 2004a). In this policy statement, central funding for Learning Town community projects would progressively cease with the project funds being transferred to a Community Learning Partnership funding pool. Learning Town entities would be able to apply for funding to implement lifelong learning projects and, importantly, the

consolidation of the funds may lead to stronger integration of projects to profile lifelong learning in the community. In Geelong, the original facilitator of Smart Geelong - Learning City resigned during 2003. With the loss of her expertise, the nebulous profile of the Learning Town had been further eroded to the extent that the contract partner, GATE, appeared to many in the community to undertake Learning Town activities in isolation; for some the Learning Town was something that went on within the walls of the ACE provider. The alignment of Learning Town projects with the Community Learning Partnerships that are co-ordinated through the

Regional Council for Adult, Community and Further Education is seen as more open and gives potential for greater dove-tailing of all lifelong learning activities within funding constraints. It is, however, noteworthy that of the $750,000 each year available across the state for Learning Town initiatives fully $300,000 (in 2005 and 2007) to $400,000 (in 2006) each year is contract pool funding to support the implementation of a Performance Management Framework (Adult Community and Further Education Board 2004). This leaves an average of only $40,000 project funding per Learning Town to transfer to the Community Learning Partnerships funding pool. Beyond this, a further $50,000.00 is available each year for the next three years to support collaboration within the Victorian Learning Town Network and a further $10,000 additional support is available, for 2005 only, to assist the Network of Learning Towns to apply for additional funding from other sources (Adult Community and Further Education Board 2004).

Given the lofty aspirations for learning cities outlined earlier this loss of targeted funding from state government tends to water down impressions of commitment to the promotion of learning cities generated in 2000 when Victorian sat at the

forefront of Learning Town activity in Australia. However the take up of G21 by local government has considerably enhanced interweaving of local government, Learning Town and LLEN initiatives in the Geelong region. I now turn to creating a portrayal of the formation of SGR LLEN in this highly networked context.