TRANSFORMATIVE PARTICIPATION FOR SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY - Chapter 11 - Participating is also learning

Aug 29, 2026

Learning is presented as a key outcome of participatory processes, affecting participants, facilitators, and commissioning authorities through social interaction that generates new knowledge, skills, and know-how. The chapter explains how learning rarely gets assessed in practice and proposes a formalized framework grounded in research experience from water-management participation. It outlines why learning matters, who learns, and how individual and collective learning, as well as cognitive, political, and organisational learning, can be understood and evaluated.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Chapter 11 - Participating is also learning!

A few elements for understanding

Why show interest in these learning processes?

Learning: what is it about and how can it be assessed?

Who learns?

Individual or collective learning?

What is learned?

TRANSFORMATIVE PARTICIPATION FOR SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY Around the CoOPLAGE pathways Emeline Hassenforder and Nils Ferrand, eds Chapter 11 Participating is also learning! Laura Seguin, Patrice Garin, Sabine Girard, Sarah Loudin andEmeline Hassenforder Learning is an important effect of participatory processes. As a participant, facilitator or commissioning authority, anyone who partakes in the process acquires some form of new knowledge, know-how or skill through the social interaction that takes place. Yet, in practical terms, learning is rarely assessed. So, what exactly is involved and how should it be done? In this chapter, the authors propose a formalised framework based on their own research experience on participation in the field of water management. 􀀛 A few elements for understanding Beyond the effects on decision-making, participatory processes can have effects on the actors who take part in them: citizens, professionals, elected officials, community organisation members, researchers, etc. As bearers of knowledge, interests and different representations ofthe issue under discussion, actors come together to put these factors forward, to guide and even transform the discussions and decisions of the issue at hand. In return, they too are transformed. As a place of social interaction, participatory mechanisms are spaces for learning, includingthe (trans)formation of understanding, individual knowledge, know-how, skills, and at times social representations and behaviour. Why show interest in these learning processes? Firstly, to be able to establish causal links between what happened during the participatory experience and decision-making. Establishing a new collective management rule, for example, will have required several acquisitions: new knowledge or ways of perceiving an issue at the diagnostic stage, knowledge of other participants, establishment of rules regulating discussion between them, debating skills and the ability to establish a collective opinion, to work towards a common interest, etc. Identifying these links means showing the added value of participation with regard to decisions taken by a panel of representatives who have in this manner acquired political skills and the ability to inform themselves, debate and decide. It also means identifying the key points to be worked on with the audiences not directly involved in the process, so that they too understand the decision taken. Acquired knowledge and know-how can then be reinvested elsewhere, in other situations, and feed other forms of democracy. For example, citizens who have acquired Participating is also learning! new skills during a participatory process may then become involved in a cause, or in local politics, strengthened with what they have learned (Talpin, 2011; Seguin, 2020). A social extension of learning may therefore occur, both over time and within different social groups: the individual, the group of participants, the social groups to which they belong, society at large or local institutions, etc. (Webler et al., 1995; Reed et al., 2010) Learning: what is it about and how can it be assessed? Participation is a social activity that tests the individuals and groups that take part init. It can be seen as a series of events that constitute learning situations (i.e. workshop discussions, field visits, surveys, exercises to explore possible futures or experiments, time for reflection, etc.). The questions summarised in figure 11.1 can be used throughout the process to grasp the effects of this learning. Who learns? By considering the learners in a participatory experience through a broad lens, we may consider both the mandators and designers of the mechanisms (elected representatives, institutional actors, researchers, facilitators, etc.) as well as the participants mobilised (socio-professional actors, community organisations, citizens, residents, locals, etc.), and even audiences not directly involve

FAQs

Why is learning considered an important effect of participatory processes?

Participation creates social interaction that helps participants gain new knowledge, know-how, and skills. It can also transform understandings, representations, and behaviors beyond decision-making.

How does the chapter connect participatory experience to decision-making?

It argues that establishing causal links requires identifying acquisitions made during the process, such as new ways of perceiving issues, knowledge of other participants, discussion rules, and debate skills.

What kinds of learning does the chapter distinguish and how can they be assessed?

It differentiates cognitive learning (knowledge), political learning (skills for collective action), and organisational learning (new forms of organization and actor exchanges). The chapter also frames participation as a sequence of learning events to evaluate effects throughout the process.

Aug 29, 2026

Uploaded by Bill Black