Exploring the role of learning in sustainability transitions: a case study using a novel analytical approach

Abstract

Based on an exploratory case study of a community food waste initiative in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article presents a novel analytical approach to studying the role of learning within sustainability transition niches. The article’s theoretical perspective draws from pragmatist educational philosophy, practice theory, and sustainability transition studies. Proceeding from this theoretical perspective, a two-stage empirical analysis is conducted using dramaturgical analysis and practical epistemology analysis, methods from sociology and the educational sciences. Building on this analysis, the article introduces the concept of educative practices, through which it is argued that a role of learning at the niche level within sustainability transitions is to interrupt the reproduction of norms and attitudes within socio-technical systems. The article thus offers original analytical and conceptual tools for investigating sustainability transitions in relation to learning.

Keywords:

• Sustainability transitions
• learning
• practice theory
• Dewey
• food waste

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 For an in-depth discussion of ‘Deweyan Transactionalism in Education’, we refer to Garrison et al. 2021 (forthcoming).

2 As such, PEA differs strongly from research methods based on, for example, a pre-test to assess people’s prior knowledge and a post-test to determine what they have learned. Instead, as will become clear below, what was already known and what has been learned is integrally part of the methodology itself, which takes into account what ‘stands fast’ and analyses whether or not gaps are bridged so that the participants can proceed.

Additional information

Funding

Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas, grant ID is: 2016-00992_3.