Getting active at the interface: How can sustainability researchers stimulate social learning?

This chapter challenges sustainability researchers to reflect on how they can stimulate social learning and collaborative knowledge production within the research process. Crucially, there are three challenges that need to be addressed: (1) how to increase the transdisciplinary capacity of the research processes that we facilitate; (2) how to integrate academic and non-academic knowledge types more effectively in order to develop common solutions; and (3) how to amend our roles as researchers to enhance the potential for social learning. We respond to these challenges using a conceptual road map that enables researchers to develop their capacity to facilitate more effective and interactive stakeholder dialogue within their research. We then draw on practical experience of using the road map to work with a transdisciplinary group of stakeholders to develop a sustainability assessment toolkit for rural landowners in upland Scotland. The chapter alerts us to the potential for sustainability to adopt a transformative role in social learning processes, facilitating a real-world, problem-focussed approach and combining perspectives and knowledge from a range of academic and nonacademic participants. © Wageningen Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, 2012