What does it take to study learning in transitions? A case of citizen energy in Finland
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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14
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SUSTAINABILITY: SCIENCE, PRACTICE, AND POLICY, Volume 18, issue 1, pp. 651-664
Abstract
Learning is commonly presented as one of the key premises of transitions governance. Empirical literature on learning in a sustainability transition context often remains on a generic level, without an in-depth analysis of what is learned and by whom. In this article, we address the study of learning in transition-related multi-party processes. We analyze a transition arena specifically designed to support the participants’ learning and the possibilities to study it. Its focus was on urban citizen energy, increasing renewable energy production via solar panels, heat pumps, and other on-site solutions in detached apartment buildings. We investigate the process through the learning levels (learning loops) framework within which we were able to examine if and what kind of learning can be inferred to have happened and show what kind of data and analysis such inferences minimally require. Our results demonstrate that all participants reported learning from the arena process. This learning was predominantly first-order learning within participants’ already pro-transition orientation. Half of the participants also reported some second-order learning, changing one’s interpretative framing about citizen energy. Overall, the multi-party envisioning process supported participants’ ongoing transformation efforts more than it resulted in transformative learning. Our results provide a basis for further development of a learning-sensitive approach enabling identification and consideration of methodological challenges involved in inferring learning in transitions research.Description
Funding Information: This work was supported by the Strategic Research Council of Finland consortium 293405 “Smart Energy Transition: Realizing its Potential for Sustainable Growth for Finland’s Second Century (SET)” and the Strategic Research Council of Finland consortium 313013/313014 “Collaborative Remedies for Fragmented Societies—Facilitating the Collaborative Turn in Environmental Decision-making (CORE),” Academy of Finland profiling funding Profi 6 336454 and Academy of Finland consortium Digitally Mediated Decarbon Communities in Energy Transition 348197. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Lähteenoja, S, Hyysalo, S, Lukkarinen, J, Marttila, T, Saarikoski, H, Faehnle, M & Peltonen, L 2022, 'What does it take to study learning in transitions? A case of citizen energy in Finland', SUSTAINABILITY: SCIENCE, PRACTICE, AND POLICY, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 651-664. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2022.2109316