This Special Issue of the Australian Journal of Adult Learning (AJAL) will explore various trends developing at the forefront of literacies in adult education, to consider ways that literacies are being defined and enacted in current times in research and practice. We encourage submissions from around the globe about literacies that relate to these four fields:

• Critical literacy
• New literacy studies
• Multiliteracies
• Sociocultural approaches to additional language learning in adult education

The impact of research has been growing ever more important not only in its own right, but as a factor that feeds into funding decisions at both institutional and individual levels. We are therefore pleased to present a Working Paper written by the Director of PASCAL and CR&DALL, Professor Mike Osborne, in which he assesses the cumulative impact of research that assesses the cumulative effect of research that has systematically measured, mapped and analysed learning provision at urban/regional level, contributing internationally to developing learning cities over decades.