The Smartest Cities

Posted by: Nate Berg

1 September 2008 - 7:00am

A recent study has named the "smartest" cities in Canada.

"The Canadian Council on Learning's annual Composite Learning Index, now in its third year, is created with data from 25 indicators, which in turn are grouped into four "pillars" of learning, originally developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The "learning to know" pillar focuses on formal education. It includes university attainment, high-school dropout rates, the proportion of youth who pursue post-secondary studies, and the math, science, reading and problem solving scores of teenagers. "Learning to do," the second pillar, focuses on applied skills. It looks at the number of local vocational schools and the proportion of employees who have access to workplace training. The "learning to live together" pillar attempts to measure the social values in a community. It looks at things like the proportion of Canadians who volunteer, as well as participation in clubs, and the percentage who socialize with other cultures. The last pillar, the "learning to be" pillar, looks at cultural opportunities, and includes spending on books, museums, the arts, sports and recreation, as well as access to cultural resources."

"How your city scores could have a big impact on your life. For starters, if your city ranks higher, 'you'll make more money,' says Kevin Stolarick, research director of the Martin Prosperity Institute in Toronto, who studies communities and worked on the forthcoming Canadian edition of Who's Your City? with demographer Richard Florida. 'You will become a more skilled, educated and talented individual, and that's going to be reflected in the money you make.' Adds Dale Kirby, education professor at Memorial University in St. John's, 'we've seen consistently from the OECD that if you have a higher level of education among a population you're going to be doing reasonably well economically.'"

Full Story: Canada's smartest cities

Source: Maclean's, August 29, 2008

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chixdiggit have something to do with this?

Submitted by machi on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 06:12.

I just read that, according to the Canadian Council on Learning, via Macleans Magazine (o8/29), Calgary is Canada's most cultured major city. The ensuing crook'd eyebrow made my monocle drop into my glass of champagne! Now, admittedly my Edmonton-rose-tinted, er... monocle often can blind gains made by Calgary as a city, but this one just seems off. Its not just that Calgary outranks Edmonton (Even though Edmonton hosts a superior university, theatre and symphony) but that it also outranks Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. In fact, such heavyweights as Regina, Kitchener and Barrie, Ontario have been calculated 'more cultured' than the Big Three. Certainly size by itself doesn't make for a vibrant civic culture, but by what criteria can you find Toronto ranked between Kelowna BC and Thunder Bay? Is it that Paul Shaffer legacy? From their study, an explanation:

"When you combine the percentage of households who spend money to attend museums with those who spend to attend the live performing arts, Calgary comes out on top"

Thin, then? Is attending live performing arts and going to museums, pardon paying to go to live performances and museums, the only way to judge a city's cultural merits? "Culture" as a concept is obviously vague and given to debate but the study fails to adequately discuss what "culture" even means, other than explaining that "recent research suggests that engagement with cultural activities bolsters self-confidence, boosts self-esteem, and enhances creativity and communication skills." What about engagement with street life and architecture, multiculturalism, access and range of cultural events? What about quality of its arts, and not just the expendable cash of its citizens? None of these factors have been taken into consideration.

If the same % of local citizens pay to go to the Creationist Museum as pay to go to the National Art Gallery, does that make Lethbridge and Ottawa cultural equals? I guess it all depends which hillbilly you ask. They have defined culture too narrowly, and then wrongly tried to apply value to it. Its a silly study, not just because they did it so poorly, but because there is no right answer.

http://machimachimachi.blogspot.com/