Network Learning: Towards Understanding Variation

The importance of network learning is stressed as the urge to constantly learn, adapt and improve to address complex challenges in a constantly changing environment. In a balancing act the (local) government on the one hand acts as a “regulatory state” taking responsibility for public interests, while on the other hand depends on public-private-civil society arrangements to realise these interests. Isn’t such a government forced to learn and adapt as it is functioning in these arrangements? This means that the learning environment is the eco-system of a city or region. In practice we see a lot of different more or less innovative interactions with at least a learning intention like city-labs, scrum-sessions, peer-review meetings and intervisions. How effective are those interactions? What impact do they have? Does the effectiveness depend on specific conditions of circumstances? Theoretical focus First pioneering work can be attributed to Paulo Freire and his attention for the way people learned individually and in small groups. Individuals were helped by the interaction in small groups discussing practical experiences. Later attention focused on policy processes as learning cycles (Argyris and Schon, 1978, Bateson, 1972) and organizational learning (Stewart 1992). Several authors suggest that inter-organizational interaction and networks can greatly contribute to learning (Paul Coughlan 2011). Is a trend visible in the thinking on learning from individual to organization to networks? Are phases visible in the thinking on this subject and if so: what are the main approaches, characteristics, assumptions and guidelines in each phase? There seems to be a wide range of approaches to network learning in the public sector. What originated this richness in variation? How can this variation be understood. Is the variation still widening with still more and new methods or is a focus on fewer methods visible? There may be an effect of copying the approaches from elsewhere. A logical question related to this variation is, what works best? This may very likely have to do with the conditions and contexts under which a learning approach is used. Although we do know a few things about favourable and unfavourable conditions, questions about the results or impact are hard to answer for learning processes. Would these effects also have been realized if there would not have been a learning process? Apart from the effect or impact of learning on society one could also argue that the focus should be on the method and arrangement selected by the network. Literature Argyris and Schon, 1978, Organizational Learning: a Theory of Action Perspective. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Bateson, 1972, Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology. University Of Chicago Press Coughlan, 2011, Collaborative Strategic Improvement Through Network Action Learning: The Path to Sustainability, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK