TransFormers in knowledge production: building science–practice collaborations

Abstract

This article places action learning in the context of system innovation, as it studies the potential use of action learning for system change. In order to effect such system change, collaboration between actors from different institutional backgrounds is essential. To gain insight into if and how action learning can be applied for system change, we study three system change projects in Dutch agriculture. We focus specifically on the approaches developed by the project leaders for collaboration between the scientists and the entrepreneurs and analyse how the interaction between these two contributed to the learning process within the project. This article concludes with guiding concepts for action learning for system change in the field of sustainable development of agriculture and beyond.

Keywords:

• action learning
• system innovation
• inter-institutional collaboration
• science and society

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the support of TransForum, the co-funder of our research project ‘Networked Learning, Learning from Networks’, of which the three case studies discussed in this article form a part. TransForum is a national programme that supports collaboration between science and practice in order to realise the sustainable development of agribusiness and rural areas. In addition we would also like to thank the project leaders and other interviewees, without whose openness this research would not have been possible.