Learning is a powerful boundary concept for discussing one of the most contested aspects of sustainability science: the process of change, its outcomes and connections to the context. With a unique emphasis on relations and cognition, the learning concept potentially welcomes different scientific approaches to get onboard for realizing and contributing to sustainability transformations. I would like to pose this question and partially answer: why learning in environmental governance as a fascinating scholarly arena has been chiefly populated with not politicized views, or why the politicized scholarship, which strives to present its differentiation, has not actively engaged in elaboration upon this boundary concept? My point is that the minor involvement of politicized scholarship, rather than an occasional insensitive behavior, might have roots in how learning has refined its agenda. Drawing upon the contrasting orientations of the learning and critical scholarships, I will try to show how the commitment to providing solutions can be a determinative factor in producing scientific knowledge about learning issues. It will underpin the necessity of rethinking the learning scholarship in environmental governance.
