It is said that the concept of social inclusion was developed in France in the 1980s, though just a little knowledge of history will remind us that people of good will and compassion have worked through the centuries to offset the adverse effects of political, commercial and societal decision-makers.

This article provides a brief overview of historic work in the field of Learning City development. It then proceeds to highlight two contemporary strands of work. The first is the initiative of UNESCO’s Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in establishing the International Platform of Learning Cities. The second is the work of the PASCAL Observatory, currently manifested in the Learning Cities 2020 programme.

This paper looks at the role that educational bodies can play in promoting social and economic innovation at a local or regional level. A locality or region promoting innovation can be called a ‘learning region’. The paper demonstrates how learning in a ‘learning region’ differs from traditional formal and individualistic learning.

The ‘learning region’ discourse emerged from the debates of the neoliberal views of socio-economic and cultural change. These views stressed the overall trends of globalisation which had to transform the traditional economic, social and cultural institutions. In opposition of these views, the ‘learning region’ discourse pointed out the importance of locality.