PASCAL continues to extend its global reach through its mainstream activities and social media.

Our successful 11th International conference has recently concluded in Hong Kong, PASCAL's first major event in that region, and this website carries information and reflections on the event.

We have also now passed 1000 twitter followers, spread around the world in 43 countries. . Our Facebook page has attracted almost 200 'likes', spread over an amazing 45 countries, and the daily paper 'Observations' has been shared over 4300 times.

Cities participating in the Intercultural cities programme of the Council of Europe undergo expert and peer reviews of their policies, governance and practice. This review takes the form of narrative reports and city profiles – a form which is very rich in content and detail but is relatively heavy as a tool to monitor progress and communicate results.

Another set of random reflections for your perusal below:

Challenging the 'European Area of Lifelong Learning' critically reflects on the context in which lifelong learning policies and practices are organized in Europe with contributions of researchers and policy makers in the field, including a number of colleagues associated with the PASCAL Observatory and CR&DALL. This includes a chapter entitled 'The Rise and Fall and Rise again of Learning Cities' by Lynette Jordan, Norman Longworth and Michael Osborne. 

Udine is a small city of 100,000 souls about 120 kilometres North of Venice. It is the capital city of the region of Friuli, which adds another 70,000 or so people to the headcount. In former times,  it was ruled by a wide selection of invaders, most of whom came, saw, conquered and stayed. Aquilea,  to the south of the region, was the second largest Roman city/port in antiquity – all that remains of it are a few stones down by the now non-existent river and a 4th century cathedral with some stunning mosaics.