The PIE stimulus paper on Shanghai by Professor Jian Huang (School of Education Science, East China Normal University) is appropriately titled Towards a Learning Society Experience and Reflections from Shanghai. The paper traces steps taken by Shanghai from 1999 to set in place a policy framework for a learning society linked to long term planning for education reform. The paper traces the successive phases during this period with policies initiated to build a learning culture. Shanghai is the third Chinese city in the PIE exchanges, joining Beijing and Hong Kong.

The Shanghai story is a fascinating one, and is well told by Professor Huang. A particular point of interest for me are the steps taken to drive the learning city initiative down to Shanghai’s eighteen districts and counties with a broad range of “life classrooms” for ordinary citizens including elderly people and immigrants. A Shanghai Lifelong Learning web site has been launched “to create inter-connections between cities, communities, and villages forming a co-operative mechanism”  Professor Huang has agreed to elaborate on these local community learning and building activities in a paper for the PASCAL conference in Hong Kong next November.

Dr Huang shows how priorities have shifted in the successive development phases of building a lear ning society. While educational and economic objectives dominated in the initial phases, the third phase is influenced by “the idea of building a harmonious society” with opportunities provided for various disadvantaged groups. The paper balances an overview of the Shanghai experience with reflection on that experience. An important observation is that the government and market roles have dominated in development to date, with civil society involvement  a lesser role.

Planning aspects of the Shanghai story are of considerable interest. This includes the establishment by the Shanghai City Government of a Shanghai Municipal Committee on Building a Learning Society and Promoting Lifelong learning to undertake co-ordination and planning roles. While the Committee is linked to the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, there are inputs from a broad range of organisations including the Shanghai Municipal Committee of Spiritual Civilisation and the Municipal Commission of Science and Technology.

There is much in the Shanghai experience to illustrate that leadership in the learning city movement has passed to East Asia, and Professor Huang’s paper repays a careful reading. I am looking forward to her expanded paper for the PASCAL Hong Kong conference.