We pleased to publish this blog, ‘Nurturing Harmony: Ethical Leadership and the Future of Learning Cities’ by Nematollah Azizi.
In this blog, the author challenges us to think beyond technocracy to recentre on collective human flourishing in university- city partnerships in Learning Cities. He presents us with a partnership approach seeking to embody trust, participation, and shared values justice, consultation, and accountability into governance. Nematollah argues for a governance model grounded in consultation, justice, and stewardship rather than solely in technology and performance metrics. This is a conversation that is globally important.
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Across the world, “Learning Cities” are presented as blueprints for inclusive growth, digital innovation, and lifelong learning. Yet many university–city partnerships struggle to translate ambitious strategies into meaningful, sustained change. A persistent implementation gap remains.
One reason may be that leadership in these initiatives often becomes technocratic. Data systems, innovation metrics, and competitiveness indicators are prioritised, while the deeper question of human flourishing recedes. If learning cities are to be sustainable, leadership must be anchored not only in efficiency, but in values.
The Sanandaj case shows that ethical leadership fills a critical gap, offering an alternative to transactional governance and prompting a redefinition of leadership in practice.
Learning Cities: From Human Capital to Human Flourishing
The learning city agenda gained global visibility through UNESCO’s works (1972) and (1996). Early interpretations, however, were often shaped by economic goals and human capital development.
More recent work by the UNESCO and UIL and the PASCAL promotes a broader vision: integrating formal, non-formal, and informal learning to strengthen social cohesion, sustainability, and civic participation (Atchoarena and Howells, 2021).
Our research contributes to this conversation by asking: what kind of leadership sustains this broader vision? And how do we prevent the “Smart City” agenda from overshadowing the “Human City”?
Three Lessons from Sanandaj
In Sanandaj, Islamic Educational Leadership (IEL) offered a coherent ethical framework for the university–city partnership, conceptualising leadership not as positional authority but as a form of moral responsibility. Rather than presenting this as a descriptive case, three key lessons emerge for leadership research and practice.
These lessons suggest that sustainable learning cities require ethical coherence as much as strategic planning.
A Decolonial Contribution
This research contributes to wider debates about decolonising educational leadership (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018; Dei, 2021). It challenges a long-standing assumption within the field: that leadership knowledge and “best practice” travel in a single direction, typically from West to East. By foregrounding a Global South epistemology, the Sanandaj case repositions where theoretical insight can originate and demonstrates that innovation in leadership thinking is not the preserve of any one region, tradition, or institutional centre.
Decolonising the learning city means recognising that governance knowledge flows in multiple directions. It invites researchers and practitioners to engage with locally rooted traditions as sources of innovation, not as deviations from normative models.
Leading for Collective Flourishing: A Summary
The Sanandaj case demonstrates that Islamic Educational Leadership (IEL) complements and strengthens modern civic university agendas by embedding justice, consultation, and accountability into governance. It suggests that failures in learning city initiatives stem less from technical limitations than from a lack of ethical orientation and shared moral purpose.
For researchers, the case calls for rethinking leadership frameworks and engaging more seriously with non-Western epistemologies as sources of theory. For practitioners, it highlights that sustainable partnerships depend on trust, participation, and shared values. For policymakers, it underscores the need for governance models grounded in consultation, justice, and stewardship rather than solely in technology and performance metrics.
Ultimately, the effectiveness of learning cities depends on whether they prioritise technological optimisation or the collective flourishing of communities—a choice that begins with the kind of leadership they cultivate.
Nematollah Azizi is a Professor at the University of Kurdistan and an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow. Michael Osborne is an Amertus Professor at the University of Glasgow.
This project was supported by the BELMAS Leadership and Practitioner Bursary.
Atchoarena, D., Howells, A. (2021). Advancing Learning Cities: Lifelong Learning and the Creation of a Learning Society. In: Ra, S., Jagannathan, S., Maclean, R. (eds) Powering a Learning Society During an Age of Disruption. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 58. Springer.
Azizi, N., & Osborne, M. (2026). Decolonizing learning cities for climate resilience: A case study of Sanandaj, Iran. IRE.
Dei, G. J. S. (2021). Anti-colonial educational leadership and decolonization of knowledge. JLAE, 18(1), 10–24.
Delors, J., et al. (1996). Learning: The treasure within. Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. UNESCO.
Faure, E., et al. (1972). Learning to be: The world of education today and tomorrow. UNESCO Publishing.
Mignolo, W., & Walsh, C. E. (2018). On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, praxis. Duke University Press.
