The aim of this series is to ground and contextualise discussions of widening participation, which can often be spoken of in largely abstract terms, in considerations of the local and micro practices of WP by focusing on two large and complex cities (Sheffield and London) and on Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland which face different challenges in relation to WP and to the idea of the ‘local’.

Inclusion has been central to the concept of a learning city from the beginning. While useful work has been undertaken in addressing exclusion in both the PASCAL International Exchanges (PIE) and Learning Cities Networks (LCN) programs, global contextual shifts and issues with mass migration flows, instability and high unemployment in many countries, and structural industry changes have raised a new generation of exclusion issues to add to the traditional issues in various stages of the lifecourse. PASCAL will be addressing these issues at their 13th International Conference in Glasgow, 3-5 June, 2016.

This is our Second Call for Papers for the XIV Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) that will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, 14 - 17 June 2016.

The Open University’s Centre for Inclusion and Collaborative Partnerships will be holding their Widening Participation Conference "HE: Transforming lives through life-wide learning?" on 27th and 28th April 2016 at the Jury's Inn in Milton Keynes.