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The Learning Dimension of Adaptive Capacity: Untangling the Multi-level Connections

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Adaptive Capacity and Environmental Governance

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Environmental Management ((SSEM))

Abstract

This chapter summarizes learning processes at individual, action group, organizational, network, and societal levels of analysis, and details connections linking learning outcomes across multiple levels. The discussion highlights how learning processes may not adequately accommodate contested values, power imbalances, and socio-economic constraints. The chapter casts light on adaptive capacity in multi-level governance by developing the concept of multi-level learning, suggesting ways to produce complementarity across multiple organizational levels, and supporting the proposition that relational spaces enhance adaptive capacity. The chapter also reveals the need for further theoretical development, including fully accounting for network and societal levels of analysis, assessing promising linking institutions (such as community-based social marketing and adaptive co-management), and addressing power asymmetries in learning dynamics. A promising avenue regarding the last point is giving more attention in theory and practice to critical, non-formal education. Further, the chapter emphasizes the need for place-based empirical studies of existing institutions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    My definition of governance is similar to the one adopted in Chap. 1: the processes and institutions used to address challenges and create opportunities in society (Armitage et al. 2009).

  2. 2.

    I have adopted Young’s (2002, p. 286) definition of institutions, which is similar in approach and breadth to the definition used in the first chapter: “institutions are the conventions, norms and formally sanctioned rules of a society. They provide expectations, stability and meaning essential to human existence and coordination. Institutions regularize life, support values and produce and protect interest”.

  3. 3.

    Organizational theory describes three similar forms of learning (Argyris 1977, 1990; Argyris and Schön 1978; Easterby-Smith et al. 2000; Flood and Romm 1996). Single-loop learning involves improving efficacy, or getting better at fulfilling existing purposes in the context of a given set of fundamental governing variables. Double-loop learning involves evaluation of and changes to both instrumental means and ends and fundamental governing variables. Triple-loop learning asks if power structures act too much in support of selected and privileged definitions of rightness. Additionally, emancipatory learning was influenced by Paulo Freire’s “pedagogy of the oppressed” (Freire 1970, 1973). This educational approach is intended specifically to counter power asymmetries and hegemonic influences. It looks to empower the disenfranchised, challenge socio-political and economic presuppositions, foster emancipatory learning, and mobilize concerted action for structural change.

  4. 4.

    I adopt Woodhill’s (2002) definition of social learning as my definition of societal learning minus the restrictive sustainability criterion – see Sect. 3.2.5.

  5. 5.

    Nonformal adult learning results from deliberate education for adults occurring outside of educational institutions, such as facilitated activities found in community groups and organizations. Nonformal learning is different from informal learning, which refers to the experiences of everyday living from which individuals learn something (Merriam et al. 2007).

  6. 6.

    I have adopted an expansive definition of power: an expression of human agency in the context of enduring structural preconditions that has coercive, constraining, and systemic consent-producing dimensions (Raik et al. 2008).

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Acknowledgments

I want to thank Bruce Mitchell of the University of Waterloo, Derek Armitage of Wilfrid Laurier University and John Sinclair of the University of Manitoba. Our work together in 2008, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, was highly influential in crystallizing aspects of the framework presented in the chapter. I also want to thank Mark Pelling of Kings College London, Ryan Plummer of Brock University and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful suggestions on an earlier version of the chapter.

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  1. Environmental Studies Program, The University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, R3B 2E9, Winnipeg, Canada

    Alan Diduck

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Correspondence to Alan Diduck .

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  1. Dept. Geography &, Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, N2L 3C5, Canada

    Derek Armitage

  2. Dept. Tourism & Environment, Brock University, Glenridge Ave. 500, St. Catharines, L2S 3A1, Canada

    Ryan Plummer

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Diduck, A. (2010). The Learning Dimension of Adaptive Capacity: Untangling the Multi-level Connections. In: Armitage, D., Plummer, R. (eds) Adaptive Capacity and Environmental Governance. Springer Series on Environmental Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12194-4_10

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