Abstract
In 2007, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) asked the authors to design and run a program for communicative skills development of Natural Resource Management (NRM) administrators and managers at SEPA and county administrative boards. This essay is based on our experiences with and reflections on the program. We first discuss basic assumptions about the situation of the administrators and their need for communicative skills development. Second, we provide a brief description of program implementation. Finally, we use our experiences to explore implications for a wider context of NRM. We conclude that initiating and supporting bottom-up processes within top-down structures is a delicate task that demands continuous training. Establishing professional learning teams at the administrators' places of work can facilitate continuous reflection and communicative competence development.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Lotten Westberg
Lotten Westberg is a Researcher in the Unit of Environmental Communication, Department of Urban and Rural Development, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Lars Hallgren
Lars Hallgren is an Assistant Professor in the Unit of Environmental Communication, Department of Urban and Rural Development, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Agneta Setterwall
Agneta Setterwall is a Lecturer in the Unit of Environmental Communication, Department of Urban and Rural Development, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences