Integrated Multimedia City Data: Exploring Learning Engagement and Greenspace in Glasgow

This paper showcases a holistic, data-led, analytical approach to complex research questions about the associations between learning engagement and green spaces, and uses this exemplar to refl ect on, and make recommendations relevant to, future implementation of CIM approaches to aspects of urban inclusion. This research off ers a holistic picture of educational engagement, digital use, sustainability, cultural and civic participation, and transportation, employing data from diverse strands of the Integrated Multimedia City Data (iMCD) project in the Glasgow city region. This includes a household survey, individuals’ travel diaries and GPS trails around the city, linked to other urban administrative datasets on area deprivation and greenspace. Triangulated fi ndings from iMCD data indicate that greenspace is generally positively related to adult learning engagement (in particular, less formal learning), highlighting the value to urban planners of considering varied types of data capture for lifelong learning, with linkage to more objective measures of active mobility (e.g. walking) around the city. iMCD, in line with CIM approaches, off ers an interdisciplinary bridge to address healthy ageing and educational inclusion. Insights generated in a CIM-based context can help education policymakers, city planners, and other educational stakeholders reconsider resource and infrastructure allocation, for instance, in promoting lifelong learning engagement for adults in urban sett ings. This paper showcases a holistic, data-led, analytical approach to complex research questions about the associations between learning engagement and green spaces, and uses this exemplar to refl ect on, and make recommendations relevant to, future implementation of CIM approaches to aspects of urban inclusion. This research off ers a holistic picture of educational engagement, digital use, sustainability, cultural and civic participation, and transportation, employing data from diverse strands of the Integrated Multimedia City Data (iMCD) project in the Glasgow city region. This includes a household survey, individuals’ travel diaries and GPS trails around the city, linked to other urban administrative datasets on area deprivation and greenspace. Triangulated fi ndings from iMCD data indicate that greenspace is generally positively related to adult learning engagement (in particular, less formal learning), highlighting the value to urban planners of considering varied types of data capture for lifelong learning, with linkage to more objective measures of active mobility (e.g. walking) around the city. iMCD, in line with CIM approaches, off ers an interdisciplinary bridge to address healthy ageing and educational inclusion. Insights generated in a CIM-based context can help education policymakers, city planners, and other educational stakeholders reconsider resource and infrastructure allocation, for instance, in promoting lifelong learning engagement for adults in urban sett ings.