Beyond School: Vienna’s Bildungsgrätzl as an Example of Learning Community

Abstract

Urban education systems are increasingly experimenting with place‑based learning communities (LCs) to respond to growing socio‑ecological complexity. Yet empirical research on how such initiatives are organized, governed, and enacted in practice remains limited. This study situates Vienna’s Bildungsgrätzl (BG) initiative within this emerging field of distributed, school‑anchored LCs, addressing the conceptual ambiguities and governance tensions that characterize comparable models internationally. Drawing on semi‑structured expert interviews (N = 16) with educational leaders and stakeholders from seven BGs, we analyze how BGs evolve, how collaboration is structured across formal, non‑formal and informal institutions and how actors negotiate the initiative’s values, governance roles and everyday practices. The findings indicate that BGs combine bottom‑up engagement with light municipal scaffolding, shifting over time from loosely connected Communities of Practice to more intentionally coordinated Communities of Learners. The analysis identifies key mechanisms—hybrid governance configurations, cross‑institutional role distribution and activities that bridge school-community boundaries—that enable BGs to function as extended learning systems embedded in the city’s Smart Climate Strategy. The study contributes new empirical insights into how local LCs can be organized within urban governance structures while retaining local agency, illuminating both the innovative potential and the structural constraints of the BG model. These findings offer transferable lessons for policymakers and educators seeking to establish sustainable, community‑rooted educational networks in other urban contexts.