Paper from the PASCAL International Observatory Conference, "Making Knowledge Work: Building Sustainable Partnerships through Place Management, Social Capital and Lifelong Learning" October 2005, University of Stirling, Scotland The following examination goes against the current trend in policy on learning communities by relaxing the assumption that they represent virtuous circles of mutually reinforcing actions and which are good in their own right. It does this by offering a critique of the market-led urban regeneration initiatives and measures taken by the UK government to replace this with a plan-led alternative, where strategic actions are required to be based on a sufficiently ‘place-based’ knowledge of what communities need to be sustainable.