Navigating the tides of change: revisiting the notion of reflexivity in the context of social learning for transboundary collective experimentation

Abstract

Social learning theory in the context of multi-actor engagement tends to relate reflexivity primarily to critical questioning of theories-in-use. We argue that viewing suspensive dialogue and imaginative envisioning as additional stages of reflexivity will serve at least three purposes: prevent over-emphasis on instrumental rationality focusing on assumptions and practices inherited from the past, give more room to boundary-crossing and empathy in sensitive pluralistic contexts and, last but not least, relate reflexivity to bold and, to times, subversive collective envisioning of future possibilities. Arguably, the latter dimension is particularly relevant in the context of multi-actor endeavours framed as collective experiments. Moreover, revisiting reflexivity, as suggested, might help turn what still remains a largely theoretical concept into a useful heuristic device. We anticipate this device to be fruitful for gauging the capacity of one particular transboundary multi-actor initiative to call forth democratically grounded visions of as-yet unexperimented options for halting ecological degradation of marine habitats bisected by an international border.

Keywords:

• social learning
• reflexivity
• suspensive dialogue imaginative envisioning
• transboundary collective experimentation

Notes

1. Among others, the Dutch-German-Danish Trilateral Cooperation on the Protection of the Wadden Sea and the Baltic Sea Cooperation.

2. It had other appellations in the course of its history.

3. On November 12, 2009, the US Board of Geographic Names approved ‘Salish Sea’ as the official name for the combined waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Georgia Strait.

4. Undeniably, to date, hardly anything illustrates better connectivity unhindered by man-made boundaries than satellite pictures taken from space.

5. It took place in Seattle in February 2009.