Social learning in innovation networks: how multisectoral collaborations shape discourses of sustainable agriculture

The increasing complexity of modern day society has led to the emergence of a specific type of sustainability problems known as complex problems. These types of problems can be characterised by their cognitive complexity and inherent insecurity, their normative complexity that allows for completely different interpretations rooted in different worldviews and finally the occurrence of a conflict of interests between different actors. Sustainable agriculture is the case in point. The Dutch countryside is standing on the threshold of a major transition. Rural development in The Netherlands nowadays involves far more than just restructuring agricultural production. The linear innovation perspective where new knowledge was discovered at universities and subsequently transferred to farmers by means of government sponsored extension services has given way to a new perspective on innovation. This perspective takes a relational view on innovation in which knowledge and innovations are co-created together with stakeholders and it emphasises the importance of experimentation and social learning involving a multisectoral network of actors from science, businesses, government agencies and nongovernmental organisations. The aim of these collaborative innovation networks is to contribute to the transition to sustainable agriculture, a radical and structural change of the agricultural system as a whole. This thesis focuses on these innovation networks in the context of sustainable agriculture. Its aim is to explore some of the underlying social mechanisms at play in these collaborative networks. Network perspectives have been used extensively to model the linear diffusion of knowledge from universities to farmers and between farmers themselves. However, bottom-up innovation projects with stakeholders do not only require knowledge transfer, but also need to change the organisational structures, laws and institutions governing the sector. This thesis consists of two main parts. The first part of this thesis addresses the content of the concept of sustainable agriculture. It conceptualises innovation as a social learning process in which participants forge new relationships to enhance information flows and learn from each other. The results can thus be divided into ‘outputs’ and ‘outcomes’. Outputs are the plans, scenarios, computer models and indicators that form the physical results of a collaborative process. The outcomes are formed by the building of trust and the development of a new discourse, a new shared language with which to communicate with each other. Using discourse analysis and Q-methodology the existing rurality discourses in the Netherlands were compared to the discourses that were present in the number of innovation projects dealing with sustainable agriculture. Results show that discourses of sustainable agriculture are a natural continuation of existing rurality discourses. The use of technology and the agricultural production function of rural landscapes are among the two most contested elements within the discourses. They are either anti-technological focusing on a multi-functional use of the countryside, or technophile with a strong sense of entitlement of agrarian production in the countryside. Both these extremes are limiting the possibilities for innovative projects to become successful. This thesis defines the concept of Metropolitan Agriculture as a form of sustainable agriculture that combines a technological approach of agriculture on the one hand with a multifunctional use of the countryside. The second part of the thesis elaborates a new network perspective that links three network functions in innovation systems to individual skills of knowledge creation, institutional entrepreneurship and innovation brokerage. These functions are necessary for the up- and outscaling of a local innovation. Social Network Analysis was used to study the distribution of these three functions over the participants of a collaborative innovation network. Results showed that these three functions are concentrated in three small core-groups and that these core-groups only displayed a very limited overlap. To what extent people are capable to perform one of these three functions depends for a large part on the type of organisation they work for. Finally, this thesis presents a new mapping technique to investigate and explain the network dynamics of a collaborative innovation network. Using this technique a longitudinal two-mode affiliation network was constructed over a period of 16 years. The analysis of the network dynamics shows how the structural characteristics of size, composition, connectedness and centralisation of a collaborative network change and how these changes are the result of the social relations between actors at the project level as they choose their partners to cooperate with and enter a process of social learning. This thesis therefore shows how the macro-level network dynamics can be explained by micro-level niche processes. It shows how the ideas in the niche change over time with new actors entering the network and other ones leaving after a certain period. The two parts of the thesis together explain how collaboration processes at the niche level can only gradually change societal discourses. In order to ‘sell’ a new idea it has to be embedded within familiar discourse elements. At the same time, these ideas play an important role in finding new partners to collaborate with and expand the existing innovation network. </p

Evaluation of stakeholder participation in monitoring regional sustainable development

This paper presents a theoretical framework that can be used to discuss the question of how context, time and different participatory process designs influence the results of participatory monitoring projects in terms of concrete outputs (such as sustainability indicators) and the more intangible social outcomes (such as learning and stakeholder relations). We will discuss and compare four different cases of participatory monitoring of provincial sustainable development in the Netherlands. The results show sustainability issues selected by the stakeholders reflect the socio-economic and ecological structural characteristics of their region. In a different context, stakeholders not only assign different weights to the same set of issues, but more importantly they select a completely different set of regional aims altogether. Since these regional structural characteristics only change slowly over time, the influence of time on stakeholder preferences is shown to be only of minor importance. However, the dissipation of learning effects is shown to be a fundamental challenge for the cyclical nature of participatory monitoring, especially when its goal is shared agenda building. Another important conclusion is that, in the design of participatory processes, more attention should be devoted to providing stakeholders with the opportunity to comment on an ‘intermediate’ product

Final report TransForum WP-046 : images of sustainable development of Dutch agriculture and green space

In the project “Images of sustainable development of Dutch agriculture and green space” three PhD candidates studied the topic of images in sustainable development. Frans Hermans focused on the topic of societal images and their role and influence in innovation projects. The title of his subproject was “Social learning for sustainability in dynamic agricultural innovation networks.” Joost Vervoort explored the topic of “visualisation”, that is, using and producing images for specific purposes, in the context of innovation projects and programmes, in a subproject called “Step into the system: interactive media strategies for the exchange of insights on social-ecological change.” Finally, Dirk van Apeldoorn took a complex adaptive systems approach to images. He modelled various agro-ecosystems to compare images of those systems with the behaviour of those systems. His subproject was called “Modeling resilience of agro-ecosystems.

A Systemic Innovation Policy Framework: The Cases of Scottish and Dutch Agrifood Innovation Systems

The application of genetic selection technologies in livestock breeding offers unique opportunities to enhance the productivity, profitability, and competitiveness of the livestock industry in Scotland. However, there is a concern that the uptake of these technologies has been slower in the sheep and beef sectors in comparison to the dairy, pig and poultry sectors. This is rather paradoxical given the fact that Scotland’s research outputs in farm animal genetics are widely perceived to be excellent. A growing body of literature, popularly known as Innovation Systems theories, suggests that technological transformations require a much broader approach that transcends formal research establishments. Accordingly, this paper reports on preliminary work exploring whether and how an agricultural innovation systems perspective could help identify the dynamics of technology uptake in the livestock sectors in Scotland. Although the work has been undertaken in dairy, sheep, and beef sectors, in this paper, we provide the preliminary results obtained from a case study of the sheep sector only. The key objectives of this work were to map the sheep genetics innovation system in Scotland and identify the barriers prevailing within the system with regard to the uptake of genetic selection technologies. Although the sheep innovation system was characterised by the presence of all key domains and actors, it was found to suffer from some crucial weaknesses relating to network integration, technological infrastructure, and policies and institutional frameworks. The implications of these findings are discussed

Exploring dimensions, scales, and cross-scale dynamics from the perspectives of change agents in social-ecological systems

Issues of scale play a crucial role in the governance of social–ecological systems. Yet, attempts to bridge interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of scale have thus far largely been limited to the science arena. This study has extended the scale vocabulary to allow for the inclusion of practice-based perspectives on scale. We introduced “dimensions,” used to describe the bare aspects of phenomena, such as time, space, and power, structured by scales and levels. We argued that this extension allows for a clearer understanding of the diversity of dimensions and scales that can be used to explore social–ecological systems. We used this scale vocabulary in a practical case study to elicit perspectives on dimensions, scales, and cross-dimensional dynamics from change agents in Dutch social–ecological systems. Through a visual interview method based in the extended scale vocabulary, our participants identified a large diversity of dimensions they saw as instrumental to understanding insights and lessons about effecting systems change. These dimensions were framed by a large number of scales to describe cross-dimensional interactions. The results illustrate the value of practice-based perspectives for the development of scale theory. We also argue that the introduction of dimensions in the scale vocabulary is useful for clarifying scale theory aimed at linking different disciplines and sectors, and that the framework and methods based on it can also provide clarity for practical scale challenges

Social learning in innovation networks: how multisectoral collaborations shape discourses of sustainable agriculture

The increasing complexity of modern day society has led to the emergence of a specific type of sustainability problems known as complex problems. These types of problems can be characterised by their cognitive complexity and inherent insecurity, their normative complexity that allows for completely different interpretations rooted in different worldviews and finally the occurrence of a conflict of interests between different actors. Sustainable agriculture is the case in point. The Dutch countryside is standing on the threshold of a major transition. Rural development in The Netherlands nowadays involves far more than just restructuring agricultural production. The linear innovation perspective where new knowledge was discovered at universities and subsequently transferred to farmers by means of government sponsored extension services has given way to a new perspective on innovation. This perspective takes a relational view on innovation in which knowledge and innovations are co-created together with stakeholders and it emphasises the importance of experimentation and social learning involving a multisectoral network of actors from science, businesses, government agencies and nongovernmental organisations. The aim of these collaborative innovation networks is to contribute to the transition to sustainable agriculture, a radical and structural change of the agricultural system as a whole. This thesis focuses on these innovation networks in the context of sustainable agriculture. Its aim is to explore some of the underlying social mechanisms at play in these collaborative networks. Network perspectives have been used extensively to model the linear diffusion of knowledge from universities to farmers and between farmers themselves. However, bottom-up innovation projects with stakeholders do not only require knowledge transfer, but also need to change the organisational structures, laws and institutions governing the sector. This thesis consists of two main parts. The first part of this thesis addresses the content of the concept of sustainable agriculture. It conceptualises innovation as a social learning process in which participants forge new relationships to enhance information flows and learn from each other. The results can thus be divided into ‘outputs’ and ‘outcomes’. Outputs are the plans, scenarios, computer models and indicators that form the physical results of a collaborative process. The outcomes are formed by the building of trust and the development of a new discourse, a new shared language with which to communicate with each other. Using discourse analysis and Q-methodology the existing rurality discourses in the Netherlands were compared to the discourses that were present in the number of innovation projects dealing with sustainable agriculture. Results show that discourses of sustainable agriculture are a natural continuation of existing rurality discourses. The use of technology and the agricultural production function of rural landscapes are among the two most contested elements within the discourses. They are either anti-technological focusing on a multi-functional use of the countryside, or technophile with a strong sense of entitlement of agrarian production in the countryside. Both these extremes are limiting the possibilities for innovative projects to become successful. This thesis defines the concept of Metropolitan Agriculture as a form of sustainable agriculture that combines a technological approach of agriculture on the one hand with a multifunctional use of the countryside. The second part of the thesis elaborates a new network perspective that links three network functions in innovation systems to individual skills of knowledge creation, institutional entrepreneurship and innovation brokerage. These functions are necessary for the up- and outscaling of a local innovation. Social Network Analysis was used to study the distribution of these three functions over the participants of a collaborative innovation network. Results showed that these three functions are concentrated in three small core-groups and that these core-groups only displayed a very limited overlap. To what extent people are capable to perform one of these three functions depends for a large part on the type of organisation they work for. Finally, this thesis presents a new mapping technique to investigate and explain the network dynamics of a collaborative innovation network. Using this technique a longitudinal two-mode affiliation network was constructed over a period of 16 years. The analysis of the network dynamics shows how the structural characteristics of size, composition, connectedness and centralisation of a collaborative network change and how these changes are the result of the social relations between actors at the project level as they choose their partners to cooperate with and enter a process of social learning. This thesis therefore shows how the macro-level network dynamics can be explained by micro-level niche processes. It shows how the ideas in the niche change over time with new actors entering the network and other ones leaving after a certain period. The two parts of the thesis together explain how collaboration processes at the niche level can only gradually change societal discourses. In order to ‘sell’ a new idea it has to be embedded within familiar discourse elements. At the same time, these ideas play an important role in finding new partners to collaborate with and expand the existing innovation network

Shaping the social dimension of sustainable development

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