Original Research Paper
Understanding and governing learning in sustainability transitions: A review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2018.08.002Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Learning in sustainability transitions has hardly been conceptualised, discussed, and elaborated.

  • The value of established learning traditions is systematically assessed in light of salient features of transitions.

  • Established research fields on learning include a diversity of learning contexts that are relevant for transitions.

  • These fields have value for investigating new areas like learning in regimes and in later phases of a transition.

  • They could enlighten neglected forms of learning in transition, like unlearning and learning to resist change.

Abstract

Many transitions scholars underscore the importance of learning in sustainability transitions, but the associated learning processes have hardly been conceptualised. The diverse, well-established research fields related to learning are broadly ignored or loosely applied. In this paper, we systematically explore four interesting learning traditions in terms of their value for gaining an in-depth understanding of learning in sustainability transitions and their relevance for fostering learning, by connecting them to key features of transitions. The selected learning traditions from different disciplinary backgrounds provide valuable insights. None of them sufficiently addresses the complexity of transitions. They include, however, a diversity of relevant learning contexts. We conclude that they have value for investigating new areas such as learning in socio-technological regimes and in later phases of a transition, while enlightening forms of learning that have not yet been fully recognised in transition studies, such as superficial learning, unlearning, and learning to resist change.

Keywords

Sustainability transition
Collaborative learning
Social learning
Interactive learning
Organizational learning

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