Local action to support knowledge-based development

This paper elaborates on a conceptual toolkit to support understanding and offer assistance to policymakers to plan knowledge cities based around existing efforts to support learning in localised settings. We start with a conceptual framework of the learning region that was applied to a regional development programme in the northern metropolitan region of Melbourne, Australia. In setting out the key features of a learning region, we show how the framework supports the identification of policy gaps and programme needs, drawing on case data from Melbourne's North. The analysis reveals that there can be significant local action to support learning that contributes to the broader goals of knowledge cities, which leverages but is not entirely reliant on government support. To ensure this contribution is not lost when it comes to government policy and programme planning, we argue that a focus on networked governance is needed to improve cooperation between relatively autonomous local learning networks and different levels of government.