Policy learning in collaborative environmental governance processes

ABSTRACT

Collaborative governance processes have become a popular mechanism for addressing complex environmental problems. Their success is premised, in part, on the assumption that they promote learning among diverse participants, who are then better equipped to develop creative, consensus-oriented environmental management actions. Significant gaps remain, however, in our understanding of how collaborative governance processes foster learning and what impact increased learning has on policymaking outputs. To investigate these relationships, this study provides one of the first empirical applications of Heikkila and Gerlak's collective learning framework. Key framework concepts are operationalized via interview data and existing literature and then measured via survey data collected from participants in a collaborative environmental governance process in Colorado, U.S. Findings indicate that both internal and exogenous contextual factors affect how much an individual learns within a collective context. Additionally, participants who report more learning also more strongly agree that the process produced favorable outputs and outcomes. These findings advance theories of learning in collaborative contexts and inform process design to maximize learning.     

Intergovernmental relationships after disaster: state and local government learning during flood recovery in Colorado

ABSTRACT

When communities experience disaster, emergency response and recovery are led internally, based on local-level policy decisions and priorities. Decisions about how or whether to rebuild are made by local governments. Higher governmental authorities such as states and provinces may institute their own disaster recovery processes and policies in addition to or in competition with local governments. Greater intergovernmental engagement could increase resources and knowledge, which would yield higher levels of learning and result in superior disaster recovery policy outcomes. The role of higher authorities, then, can have important implications for policy processes and outcomes. The learning literature includes a dearth of studies that analyze the relationships between state and local governments during disaster recovery. We move the learning literature forward by analyzing intergovernmental relationships during disaster recovery. We find that learning within local governments is associated with higher levels of resource flows from state agencies as well as more collaborative intergovernmental relationships. We also find that state governments can improve processes for disaster recovery assistance and bring together disaster-affected local governments to promote learning during the recovery process. While this study focused on relationships constrained by U.S. federal dynamics, the lessons are useful to other multilevel governance systems.     

Learning in participatory environmental governance – its antecedents and effects. Findings from a case survey meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Theory on participatory and collaborative governance maintains that learning is essential to achieve good environmental outcomes. Empirical research has mostly produced individual case studies, and reliable evidence on both antecedents and environmental outcomes of learning remains sparse. Given conceptual ambiguities in the literature, we define governance-related learning in a threefold way: learning as deliberation; as knowledge- and capacity-building; and as informing environmental outputs. We develop nine propositions that explain learning through factors characterizing governance process and context, and three propositions explaining environmental outcomes of learning. We test these propositions drawing on the ‘SCAPE’ database of 307 published case studies of environmental decision-making, using multiple regression models. Results show that learning in all three modes is explained to some extent by a combination of process- and context-related factors. Most factors matter for learning, but with stark differences across the three modes of learning, thus demonstrating the relevance of this differentiated approach. Learning modes build on one another: Deliberation is seen to explain both capacity building and informed outputs, while informed outputs are also explained by capacity building. Contrary to our expectations, none of the learning variables was found to significantly affect environmental outcomes when considered alongside the process- and context-related variables.     

Reflexive governance: exploring the concept and assessing its critical potential for sustainable development. Introduction to the special issue

ABSTRACT

Elaborated in publications on transition management, sustainability governance and deliberative environmental governance, ‘reflexive governance’ addresses concerns about social-ecological vulnerabilities, flawed conceptualisations of human-nature relations fragmented governance regimes and conditions for a sustainability transition. Key barriers to reflexive government include unavoidable politics; the influence of broader discursive systems that shape actors’ strategic interests; and structural and deliberate limitations to the range of admitted epistemological understandings, normative perspectives and material practices. Against this background, the contributions to the special issue provide novel conceptual linkages between reflexive governance and boundary objects, intercultural dialogue, conflict management heuristics, discourse linguistics, theories of the policy cycle and reflexive law, network and learning theories, and Lasswell’s ‘developmental constructs’. Based on the contributions, we identify five inherent conceptual tensions of reflexive governance: between the openness of horizontal learning processes and the desired direction towards sustainable development; between reflexive governance as a normative or procedural concept; between expected learning orientations and other, strategic orientations; between governance as a precondition for reflexivity and reflexive learning as a precondition for reorganized governance structures; and between reflexivity as an open-ended, evolutionary process and the need to strategically defend the space for reflexivity against powerful groups with an interest in the status quo.     

How planners and stakeholders learn with visualization tools: using learning sciences methods to examine planning processes

Planning researchers traditionally conceptualize learning as cognitive changes in individuals. In this tradition, scholars assess learning with pre- and post-measures of understandings or beliefs. While valuable for documenting individual change, such methods leave unexamined the social processes in which planners think, act, and learn in groups, which often involve the use of technical tools. The present interdisciplinary research program used Learning Sciences research methods, including conversation analysis, interaction analysis, and visualization of discourse codes, to understand how tools like agent-based models and geographic information systems mediate learning in planning groups. The objective was to understand how the use of these tools in participatory planning can help stakeholders learn about complex environmental problems, to make more informed judgments about the future. The paper provides three cases that illustrate the capacity of such research methods to provide insights into planning groups’ learning processes, and the mediating roles of planning tools.     

Exogenous factors in collective policy learning: the case of municipal flood risk governance in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

Conceptualizing and analyzing collective policy learning processes is a major ongoing theoretical and empirical challenge. A key gap concerns the role of exogenous factors, which remains under-theorized in the policy learning literature. In this paper, we aim to advance the understanding of the role that exogenous factors play in collective learning processes. We propose a typology of exogenous factors (i.e. material, socioeconomic, institutional, discursive), and subsequently apply this in a comparative study of flood risk policymaking in two municipalities in the Netherlands. We find that exogenous factors are indeed essential for understanding collective learning in these cases, as the combined influence with endogenous factors can steer similar learning processes towards different learning products. We conclude our contribution by identifying two opportunities for further developing the collective learning framework, namely regarding the distinction of varying learning products, and the dynamics of exogenous factors over time.     

Social learning from public engagement: dreaming the impossible?

Learning that transcends participation processes is critical if public engagement is to translate into a legacy of enhanced environmental citizenship. However, a lack of empirical evidence has limited discussion to date to largely ‘aspirational’ claims. This paper offers the first rigorous examination of whether public participation does generate beyond-process social learning. Initially we review the literature on public participation and environmental citizenship to identify the key dimensions of social learning. We then re-visit a well-worked case study of an innovative public engagement process on the Hampshire waste strategy from the 1990s. Approximately one third of the original participants have been interviewed to identify whether and how the experience had a lasting effect on them. Key methodological difficulties are discussed, not least the analytical difficulties of attributing learning to a process that happened ten years previously. However, we argue that there is evidence that both instrumental and communicative learning have taken place, and conclude by identifying key areas that require further research.     

Learning for social-ecological change: a qualitative review of outcomes across empirical literature in natural resource management

Learning is considered as a promising mechanism to cope with rapid environmental change. The implications of learning for natural resource management (NRM) have not been explored in-depth and the evidence on the topic is scattered across multiple sources. We provide a qualitative review of types of learning outcomes and consider their manifestations in NRM across selected empirical literature. We conducted a systematic search of the peer-reviewed literature (N = 1,223) and a qualitative meta-synthesis of included articles, with an explicit focus on learning outcomes and NRM changes (N = 53). Besides social learning, we found several learning concepts used, including policy and transformative learning, and multiple links between learning and NRM reported. We observe that the development of skills, together with a system approach involving multi-level capacities, is decisive for implications of learning for NRM. Future reviews could systematically compare how primary research applies different learning concepts and discusses links between learning and NRM changes.     

Adaptive Management and Watersheds: A Social Science Perspective1

Abstract:  Adaptive management is often proposed as the most effective way to manage complex watersheds. However, our experience suggests that social and institutional factors constrain the search for, and integration of, the genuine learning that defines adaptive management. Drawing on our work as social scientists, and on a guided panel discussion at a recent AWRA conference, we suggest that watershed‐scale adaptive management must be recognized as a radical departure from established ways of managing natural resources if it is to achieve its promise. Successful implementation will require new ways of thinking about management, new organizational structures and new implementation processes and tools. Adaptive management encourages scrutiny of prevailing social and organizational norms and this is unlikely to occur without a change in the culture of natural resource management and research. Planners and managers require educational, administrative, and political support as they seek to understand and implement adaptive management. Learning and reflection must be valued and rewarded, and fora established where learning through adaptive management can be shared and explored. The creation of new institutions, including educational curricula, organizational policies and practices, and professional norms and beliefs, will require support from within bureaucracies and from politicians. For adaptive management to be effective researchers and managers alike must work together at the watershed‐scale to bridge the gaps between theory and practice, and between social and technical understandings of watersheds and the people who occupy and use them.     

Collaborative learning for policy innovations: sustainable urban drainage systems in Leicester,England

ABSTRACT

Collaboration among multiple stakeholders is crucial in decentralised governance settings. The success of such collaboration hinges upon collaborative learning – the acquiring, translating, and disseminating of policy-relevant knowledge. However, despite much research, a knowledge gap persists in the public policy literature on the relationship between learning and policy change. It is debated whether learning is necessary and sufficient for policy change, and if so, under what conditions. To contribute to this debate, this paper examined whether collaborative learning has had any impact on the emergence and implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) in Leicester, England. We first examined implementation of SuDS in Leicester, and then study collaborative learning focused on SuDS. We found that implementation of SuDS in Leicester is marginal despite active collaborative learning that has resulted in the change in beliefs and attitudes towards SuDS among all policy actors in the setting. Social dynamics factors and leadership of two SuDS champions proved crucial for collaborative learning. We conclude that collaborative learning, while essential for legitimacy of a policy innovation, is not sufficient for policy change and a national legal and institutional framework is required to incentivise broader SuDS practices in Leicester and England.     

Social learning in a policy-mandated collaboration: community wildfire protection planning in the eastern United States

Policies such as the US Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) mandate collaboration in planning to create benefits such as social learning and shared understanding among partners. However, some question the ability of top-down policy to foster successful local collaboration. Through in-depth interviews and document analysis, this paper investigates social learning and transformative learning in three case studies of Community Wildfire Protection Planning (CWPP), a policy-mandated collaboration under HFRA. Not all CWPP groups engaged in social learning. Those that did learned most about organisational priorities and values through communicative learning. Few participants gained new skills or knowledge through instrumental learning. CWPP groups had to commit to learning, but the design of the collaborative-mandate influenced the type of learning that was most likely to occur. This research suggests a potential role for top-down policy in setting the structural context for learning at the local level, but also confirms the importance of collaborative context and process in fostering social learning.     

Learning for sustainability through CIDA's “Community-based pest management in Central American agriculture” project: a deliberative,experiential and iterative process

Community-based approaches to environmental management provide opportunities for public engagement in local decision-making processes. This qualitative case study examines learning as resulted from participation in CIDA's “Community-based pest management in Central American agriculture” project. Outcomes include learning about alternative farming practices, human and natural environments, and safer pesticide use. Many participants learnt how to work more effectively with rural communities. For some, this changed their perspective about life and their role in society. Activities that fostered learning outcomes, including sustainability-related outcomes, were: planning and implementing project activities, experimenting on farm demonstration plots, participating in outreach workshops, and students doing rural practica. The learning process, involving international university collaborators and rural participants, is analyzed particularly as it relates to cultural context, collective action, and sustainability. Findings affirm that how the public participates in environmental management decisions influences the breadth and depth of learning outcomes; practical and policy implications are discussed.     

Roles of environmental movement organisations in land-use planning: case studies of the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine,Ontario, Canada

The paper explores the roles of environmental movement organisations (EMOs) in land-use planning, including domain creation (establishment of new or modified landscape planning boundaries) and regime change (adoption of new or modified legal and planning rules). The research involved two case studies of land-use planning processes: the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada. The two cases together reveal an evolution of land-use planning towards collaborative processes on mainly private lands in Southern Ontario during the period from 1960 to 2002. The results suggest that EMOs can create new planning domains through agenda setting activities, build landscape value and vision, educate governments and the public, and work to maintain and alter regimes. Collaborative planning has emerged as an important process in which some EMOs are now participating.     

Is Learning without teaching possible? The productive tension between network governance and reflexivity

ABSTRACT

Theories of reflexive governance are closely linked with the claim that more traditional modes of coordination have been replaced by networked structures, allowing reflexivity to emerge and reflexive learning to function as a steering mechanism in rapidly changing policy contexts. This paper explores this connection between reflexivity, governance, learning and networks in societal transitions, focusing particularly on the claim that networks will deliver reflexive learning. Using network theories from both policy networks and network governance and a case study of the Canadian agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) policy network, it suggests that the kind of learning produced in networks will be a function of network structure. In particular, higher order reflexive learning will be compromised by the inevitability of the political struggle for nodality or central place in networks and the ensuing distribution of opportunities for bridging and bonding activities. Networks such as the Canadian agbiotech policy network that may promote learning but not necessarily reflexive learning are increasingly disadvantaged in contemporary policy settings.     

Policy Windows, Policy Change, and Organizational Learning: Watersheds in the Evolution of Watershed Management

Employing in-depth, elite interviews, this empirical research contributes to understanding the dynamics among policy windows, policy change, and organizational learning. First, although much of the research on agenda setting—how issues attract enough attention that action is taken to address them—has been conducted at the national scale, this work explores the subnational, regional scale. With decentralization, regional-scale environmental decision-making has become increasingly important. Second, this research highlights the role of policy windows and instances of related organizational learning identified by natural resources managers. Having practitioners identify focusing events contrasts with the more typical approach of the researcher identifying a particular focusing event or events to investigate. A focusing event is a sudden, exceptional experience that, because of how it leads to harm or exposes the prospect for great devastation, is perceived as the impetus for policy change.     

Towards urban food sovereignty: the trials and tribulations of community-based aquaponics enterprises in Milwaukee and Melbourne

Community-based urban aquaponics enterprises represent a new model for how to blend local agency with scientific innovation to deliver food sovereignty (FS) in cities, re-engaging and giving urban communities more control over their food production and distribution. Little is known, however, about the factors and outcomes that determine the success or failure of these enterprises. This paper explores stakeholder experiences of building community-based urban aquaponics enterprises to understand the internal and external factors that impact on their success or failure. We draw upon existing FS, social enterprise and aquaponics literature, to identify factors in the related area of community-based urban agriculture. For exploring these factors, we use a comparative case study methodology for two cases in Milwaukee and Melbourne, conducting in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, exploring their relative contexts, objectives and structure. Based on these findings, we highlight the challenges and suggest relevant indicators for establishing an urban aquaponics enterprise.     

Shopping studies for regional planning

This paper is based on a shopping study carried out by the Department of Geography, University of Utrecht, during 1983. It is concerned with retail planning research for larger regions and starts with a state of the art review of retail planning research in the Netherlands. The aim, in developing a new research strategy, was to reduce time and costs through using computer facilit es for both data handling and data collection. There is discussion of methodology and some outcomes to demonstrate the possibilities of the strategy.     

Learning for Sustainability Among Faith-Based Organizations in Kenya

The complex and unpredictable contexts in which environmental and development work take place require an adaptable, learning approach. Faith-based organizations (FBOs) play a significant role in sustainability work around the world, and provide a unique setting in which to study learning. This paper explores individual learning for sustainability within two FBOs engaged in sustainability work in Kenya. Learning outcomes covered a broad range of areas, including the sustainability framework, environment/conservation, skills, community work, interpersonal engagement, and personal and faith development. These outcomes were acquired through embodied experience and activity, facilitation by the workplace, interpersonal interaction, personal reflection, and Bible study and worship. Grounded categories were compared to learning domains and processes described by Mezirow’s transformative learning theory. The findings indicate that for learning in the sustainability field, instrumental learning and embodied learning processes are particularly important, and consequently they require greater attention in the theory when applied in this field.     

"What Works Well; What Needs Improvement": Lessons in public consultation from British Columbia's resource planning processes

Resource planning and management in British Columbia, Canada, has been steadily moving towards more active public participation. While government agencies have long been required to consult the general public during the course of land or resource use planning, the 1990s brought in a period of more intense public involvement. In terms of resource planning, this led to the creation of several new planning processes. Given that there is now considerable experience with the Commission on Resources and Environment (CORE) and the Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) processes, it is time for an appraisal. In particular, the paper examines the public's perceptions of these processes with respect to 'what works well' and 'what needs improvement'. The results highlight a number of areas to which process designers and managers should direct attention. There are three key items of note. First, there are generally low levels of awareness by respondents of public consultation processes in their community. Second, there is a need for access to timely, relevant and readable information throughout the course of the process in order to keep participants and the public as up-to-date as possible. Finally, there must be greater clarity about the process itself, including mandates, participants and decision-making powers.     

The impact of sensory learning modalities on children’s sensitivity to sensory cues in the perception of their school environment

Learning style models recognised that individuals differ in the sense learning modality of stimuli from which they best absorb, retain and process new information. The effect of sensory learning modalities on individual children’s sensitivity to sensory cues has so far been neglected. This paper reports on a study that sought to establish whether individual differences in children’s sensitivity to sensory cues in their perception of their school environmental features is influenced by their sensory learning modalities. Participants included Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils (N = 151) from four primary schools in South Gloucestershire, UK. The study used a child-friendly Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic questionnaire to establish children’s learning style modality. All children, independent of their learning style category, were exposed to three types of sensory cues, consisting of photo-safari, speech frequency and Global Positioning System. The analysis revealed that children’s sensitivity to sensory cues in their perception of school environmental features varied significantly between the three sensory learning modalities: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. The implications of these findings on research, policy and practice are discussed.