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Learning for sustainability (LfS) site update (April 2010)

Focus: Recent reviews on partnerships, leadership and participation

The Learning for Sustainability site - http://learningforsustainability.net - brings together resources that help address the social and capacity building aspects of managing collective interests within complex and adapting systems. The site highlights the wide range of social skills and processes that are needed to support constructive collaboration, and indicates how these skills and processes can be interwoven to achieve more integrated and effective outcomes. This site brings links to several hundred annotated on-line resources from different sectors and geographic areas together in one easy to access site.

This portal site has been updated on an ongoing basis over the past few months. This newsletter provides a brief introduction to new resources that have been added. In the reading section links are provided to three useful literature reviews, covering partnerships, leadership and participation respectively.

• Link updates
• Interesting reading: Recent reports and research papers
• Thoughts for the day
• Subscribing and unsubscribing
• Other ideas for browsing and reading

Link updates

The major structural change that readers will note is that the core social learning module has been amended to include five strands. A page on systems thinking has been added. This means the five strands are now systems thinking (undertanding complexity and seeing the bigger picture), building networks (forming new partnerships across stakeholder groups), encouraging dialogue (processes for good communication and negotiation), knowledge management (sharing knowledge and expertise within and across organizations and stakeholder groups), and evaluation and reflection (adaptively managing and supporting strategic and incremental change). Information and links on each of these areas are directly available from the "social learning" link in navigation menu on the left.

Interesting research papers and reports

The featured links for this issue are drawn from some of the new links added recently. As the pages in this portal shows there is a lot of really good material available � so this newsletter section is is by no means intended as an award-type list, it just lists some recent additions that are good sites to share. The new icon - - indicates publications that have been published in recent months.

The first three resources here comprise useful literature reviews on partnerships, leadership and participation respectively.

• Perspectives on partnership: A literature review This paper by Doug Horton, Gordon Prain and Graham Thiele reports on a wide-ranging review of the literature on partnerships and other closely related forms of collaboration. It identifies and analyzes key cross-cutting themes and success factors, highlights gaps in current knowledge, and identifies high-potential areas for further study. A wide range of research-based publications is reviewed, including studies in such fields as management and organizational development, public administration, economics and international development. It is noteworthy that empirical studies of partnerships are rare, particularly in-depth case studies. Theoretical pieces seldom present empirical tests of hypotheses, and practical guidelines are seldom grounded in theory. Gaps in knowledge are identified at the level of individual partnerships, the level of the organizations that participate in or manage portfolios of partnerships, and the level of research or innovation domains that are characterized by networks of partnerships. Click here for >> more resources on partnerships and boundary organisations >>.



• Leadership in Sustainable Urban Water Management: An Investigation of the Champion Phenomenon within Australian Water Agencies This report by Andr� Taylor develops and communicates a suite of management strategies that can be used within water agencies to: create a supportive leadership context for champions and other leaders involved with the SUWM leadership process; foster effective champions at an executive level (�executive champions�); attract, recruit, supervise and develop the leadership abilities of champions at a middle management level (�project champions�); and encourage distributed (group-based) leadership. Click here for >> more resources on capacity building >>.
  
  
• Stakeholder participation for environmental management: A literature review This working paper by Mark Reed points to the need to focus on participation as a process. It then identifies a number of best practice features from the literature. Finally, it argues that to overcome many of its limitations, stakeholder participation must be institutionalised, creating organisational cultures that can facilitate processes where goals are negotiated and outcomes are necessarily uncertain. The paper acknowledges that seen in this light, participatory processes may seem very risky, but there is growing evidence that if well designed, these perceived risks may be well worth taking. Click here for >> more resources on participation >>.

The second set of papers are ones that I have been involved in with colleagues in the past few months. These look at the benefits and social challenges involved in linking indigenous, science and local knowledge systems, and undertaking district and regional level adaptive management approaches.

• Kia pono te mahi putaiao - Doing science in the right spirit This paper by Will Allen, Jamie Ataria, Marina Apgar, Garth Harmsworth, and Louis Tremblay point to the need for more inclusive inquiry approaches where local and other knowledge systems collaborate with science in research into issues of sustainability. The authors highlight how the special nature of indigenous knowledge raises important considerations for those seeking to undertake science within an indigenous setting. This special nature allows science to benefit from partnering with knowledge cultures that address the interlinked and evolving nature of biocultural systems. They point to the need to build capacity within science in some key areas: the ability to place research projects in a wider cultural context, to build and maintain trust, and always to respect �the custom of the house or the land you are in�.



• Building Transdisciplinarity for Managing Complexity: Lessons from Indigenous Practice. This paper by Marina Apgar, Alejandro Argumedo, and Will Allen illustrates how transdisciplinary approaches can help different stakeholder groups to share and use their knowledge and experience for problem focused inquiry. it points out that facilitating transdisciplinarity requires good dialogue processes and the development of holistic frameworks. Through reflecting on participatory action research initiatives with the Kuna and Quechua indigenous peoples it highlights that indigenous societies have developed over time strong dialogue processes, and continue to link them to a holistic view of the world allowing them to manage complex societal problems. The paper then offers a new approach to promoting transdisciplinarity from the Indigenous Peoples� Climate Change Assessment (IPCCA) initiative, starting with frameworks that recognise complexity and can facilitate dialogue.



• Learning about the social elements of adaptive management in the South Island tussock grasslands of New Zealand" This book chapter from Will Allen and Chris Jacobson use a case study set in the South Island high country of New Zealand to reflect on some of the social elements required to support ongoing collaborative monitoring and adaptive management. We begin by siting the case study within its wider policy context to show how this influences the choice of scientific inquiry. The next section concentrates particularly on the processes by which information and knowledge are shared across the different stakeholder groups involved. Finally, we expand on some specific lessons that emerge as important for sharing information and knowledge in adaptive management, including tools to support dialogue and improved tools for evaluation. The full book - Adaptive Environmental Management: A Practitioner's Guide - can be ordered through Amazon using the book links below.

Thoughts for the day

• "�Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.� Anon.



• "Participation is not something that can be conjured up or created artificially ... Participation is a feeling on the part of the people, not just the mechanical act of being called in to take part in discussions." -- Lawrence, P.R. (1954 May-June). "How to Deal with Resistance to Change" Harvard Business Review, 32(3), pp. 49-57.

Sharing, feedback, subscribing and unsubscribing

Please forward this site to interested colleagues. Feedback is welcomed, and visitors are encouraged to suggest sites to add. Thanks to those of you who have pointed to papers and other material for inclusion, and sharing among the wider global community of practice in this area. During 2009 the site averaged around 450 visitors each day, with the highest number of visits in any one day being in excess of 1500.

Newsletter postings advise of major changes and additions to this site, and will be sent out as an LfS site update e-mail to those of you who wish every couple of months. These postings will indicate the major changes on the site during that time. Each posting will also include links to 5-6 feature articles, so it is a good way to gain an overview of material in this area which cuts across the health, environment and development sectors. Just click here to add your name to this list through the newsletter update subscription page. If you have received this newsletter electronically and you wish to unsubscribe you can also do this from the LfS site update page. Alternatively you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to [email protected] or unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. If all else fails just contact me directly through the contact email form page, or use the e-mail link provided in the footer of this page.

Other ideas for browsing and reading

If you have time to browse the web then visit some of the sites featured via the Guardian Environment Network. The network connects sites from across the globe that provide high-quality news, opinion, advice, blogs, data and tools. And as the site managers believe information should lead to action, so the network also includes selected campaigns. If you want to use the Internet to donate then you may also be interested in the following links to sites that let you help just by using click throughs or donating to support different causes. You choose the cause, and it only takes a few minutes of your time.

And if you want some real book reading, or to buy a gift for yourself or someone else, then visit Amazon. Below I have listed books that were highlighted through the site or mentioned on the IntSci - Integrated science for sustainability discussion forum in recent months.