Rutgers, with the distinguished Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, is a major institution located strategically mid-way in the Boston-Washington corridor that the geographer Jean Gottmann named “Megaloplis” in his path-finding book of 1960. This effort includes pursuit of synergistic activities between PASCAL associates and Rutgers faculty and students.

Please find featured below and attached the Winter 2020 issue of the newsletter Ripples, from the Australian Learning Communities Network (ALCN):

It is with great pleasure that I attach the Australian Learning Community Network Annual Report 2019-2020. In particular, I  highlight the activities of our learning communities. For example, read about:

Glebe is a suburb of Sydney (Australia) that fringes the harbour.  For over 50 years a community body, The Glebe Society, has joined together to advance: Community · Environment · Heritage.  The membership committee initiates a range of activities to engage, reveal and celebrate the uniqueness of this area.

Many are writing about what-comes-after, the post-pandemic era.  Josef Konvitz has completed a two-part essay, “Don’t Waste a Crisis”, for the French Fondation pour l’innovation politique, or FONDAPOL. This final version, which includes the first part on infrastructure and education,  focuses on cross-border risks and concludes with proposals for how Europe can reinforce its cohesion through the single market and at the same time, intervene more broadly in a globalised world.  If you think that globalisation is a bad thing, his essay suggests that regulation, European-style, uses globalisation to make the world safer.