ESRC research projects
Assessing the practice and potential of situated learning in the work of building sustainable communities
University of the West of England
Dr Ian Smith
- Assess the relative importance of different forms of learning (formal v non-formal v informal).
- Explore the opportunities and constraints on both learning and implementing learning in work around building sustainable communities.
- Convert research into learning materials that can assist professionals with work on the sustainable communities agenda.
We live in a complex world with complex problems that cross geographic, organisational and social boundaries in ways that cannot be always known in advance. In order to tackle such problems, professionals working towards the construction of sustainable communities have to both learn to learn over their working lives and to convert what they learn into collective action in the places where they work.
Learning can be thought of either as an activity done by individuals who might learn in formal settings (such as the classroom), in non-formal settings (such as work-based seminars) or in informal settings (in work).
Most learning is done in informal situations and may not be explicitly recognised by those who are doing the learning. Equally not all learning is done by the individual.
Collective or social learning is a process that structures individual learning in the workplace. Collective learning assumes some notion of learning together, although as with any social process, not all stakeholders will have an equal influence over what is learned since different stakeholders will have differing claims to expertise and knowledge. Collective learning implies advantages for organisations over individual learning since it involves building organisational capacity that can survive the inevitable turnover of key staff.
The problem is to assess the relative importance of these different forms of learning, acknowledging in advance that collective learning in project-based multidisciplinary working is problematic and relatively uncommon. However, it is also likely that both informal and social learning go on but are unrecognised by both the individuals and organisations doing the learning.
Beyond assessing current learning practice the research will explore the opportunities and constraints on both learning and implementing learning in work around building sustainable communities. It will investigate the nature of learning in work settings principally by working with professionals who are working in different ways to build sustainable communities.
Individual participants will be interviewed in order to explore their perceptions to learning and transformation, before we carry out inquiry groups where we bring together people representing different organisations and professionals to identify the practice of learning and transformation collectively.
This will be accompanied by key respondent interviews with line managers and the analysis of formal professional and organisational development strategies in key agencies.
In order to get a range of experiences we will be looking at three case study scenarios that touch on neighbourhood renewal ('urban' scenario), the regeneration of small towns ('rural' scenario) and the elaboration of a sustainable communities plan for a mid-sized settlement (such as Salisbury or Chippenham).
Each of these scenarios implies a need for agencies working around the theme of building sustainable communities to do something different, such as working with the resident community. The range of settlements will cover both the need to promote regeneration and the need to manage growth. Each of these scenarios will take place within the context of project-based (hence time-limited) multidisciplinary teams and so offer up the issue of where collective learning is to be lodged once a project is complete and the project team disbanded.
The final element of this research project is to convert what we learn and what we know already into learning material that can help professionals working on the 'sustainable communities' agenda to identify, recognise and encourage an environment for learning. This is work we will shape in partnership with the Regional Centre of Excellence and the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).
ESRC is the UK's largest research funding agency for social and economic issues.
