Social learning and networking, perspectives on a seminar

Published on: 29/03/2011

I have put my selection of insights below. Find the full file available at the bottom of this post - or online.

The seminar focused on various multi-stakeholder processes - a key theme of the WUR - and so here are some of the useful insights I found. And some reflections follow thereafter.

• The different concepts for social learning: collaborative, societal, participation, collective learning.
• The fact that social learning is essentially action-driven, it also has to lead to a better or more sustainable world.
• The importance (as highlighted by the Prolinnova experience) to build partnerships with institutions and individuals.
• The distinction - by Arjen Wals - between instrumental learning (aimed at changing people's behaviour and the development of more sustainable practices) and emancipatory learning which is about capacity building and the ability of people to contribute. Together with this comes a great learning model as a grid between (in x) authoritative/hierarchical training and participatory/democratic social learning and (in y) closed or open learning goals (i.e. prescribed or self-determined).
• The importance of bonding, bridging and linking, and of sharing failures as well as success.
• The recognition of three key elements of social learning: diversity and reflexivity.
• The call for authenticity, for more interactive, practical and reality-based learning.
• The difficulty of working with a diverse group because the aims, working cultures, professional languages, organisational structures and procedures differ.
• The excellent work by Severine van Bommel on the pre-conditions for social learning: participants need to have a shared interest in the issue at hand, there needs to be interdependence between actors and a shared problem definition; power differences should not be too large and there should be trust among participants.
• Actually interdependence may not be a given but something that is constructed over time and built as part of the process.
• The necessity of having discussions on the desired direction of change as a crucial aspect of every learning process.
• The fact that it is essential to work at various levels and guarantee multi-level coordination, because a learning process cannot be seen apart from its wider context.
• And flexible funding structures that are required to support creativity and authenticity in the process.

Phew! And this is just my selection - so do read this report, it is rich and informative.

What I take from this report is that increasingly multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) are recognised as useful solutions for complex development issues, even though we should also understand the limitations of such processes (funding mechanisms, pre-conditions to make it work etc.), in other words MSPs are not another silver bullet, even though they do have a lot of potential and merits.

The importance of awareness and consciousness about learning in the process is central. Sometimes it feels as though we are just 'building some learning patches' onto our projects and initiatives, while the purpose is central and goes way beyond quick fixes. I love the focus on reflexivity because I really think that is the key to sustainable development: stepping back and reflecting about what is going on. If we want to achieve change at scale, it is this we must encourage and nurture among ourselves as individuals, organisations, teams, sectors and societies.

Also the work around diversity of stakeholders reminds me more and more of Valerie Brown's and IKM-Emergent's body of work on multiple knowledges. See our sources of inspiration for more on this. With that diversity comes a host of issues relating to speaking a common language - to reach out to that common vision.

Finally, the authenticity of learning is also an important finding from this report. Learning is about reflecting but the deeper and more frank the reflection, the better it is for everyone. This means talking openly about mistakes and about weaknesses (I've been blogging about this recently on a KM harvesting ideas post). This again is a long term process built in the clay of trust, authenticity, inspiration and curiosity. We will have to think about these issues for our learning alliance and resource centre network processes too.

In the meantime, we keep questioning!

(By Ewen)