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Some authors emphasize the role of new knowledge in providing the
feedback, while others 62 emphasize interactions among groups with dif-
ferent belief systems and interpretive frames as the means for learning.
There is widespread agreement that crises, a sense of urgency, the avail-
ability of platforms for interaction, accumulation of new knowledge, and
experimentation are important facilitators of social learning. 63
Higher-order learning may be employed to solve intractable policy
controversies. Such controversies usually arise as a result of an irreconcil-
able clash between the adversaries on the levels of problem definitions,
norms, values, and belief systems. Learning manifests itself in a collec-
tive re-framing of the problem so as to accommodate the fundamentally
irreconcilable differences on the other levels, which in turn leads to con-
flict resolution. 64
Our study 65 used a four-level conceptual scheme to examine higher-
order learning in interactive project teams working on technological
innovations, building on previous researchers' works. 66 It presupposes
that the participants bring to the interactive process a range of compe-
tencies and belief systems, which in turn affect the meaning they attach
to the project at hand and the ways in which they seek to contribute to it.
62 Theories of the Policy Process (P. Sabatier ed., Westview Press 1999); A. Wildawski,
Choosing Preferences by Constructing Institutions: A Cultural Theory of Preference
Formation, 81 American Political Science Review 3-21 (1990); Pieter Glasbergen,
Learning to Manage the Environment, in Democracy and the Environment: Problems
and Prospects 175-212 (William M. Lafferty and James Meadowcroft, eds., Edward
Elgar Publishing 1996); Sch on, supra.
63 T. Birkland, After Disaster: Agenda Setting, Public Policy, and Focusing Events .
(Georgetown University Press 1997); G. Paquet, Governance Through Social Learn-
ing , (University of Ottawa Press 1999).
64 D. A. Sch on &M. Rein, Frame Reflection: Towards the Resolution of Intractable Policy
Controversies (Basic Books 1994).
65 See H. S. Brown et al., Learning for Sustainability Transition through Bounded Socio-
technical Experiments in Personal Mobility. Technology Analysis and Strategic Man-
agement 15, 291-315 (2003). See also Halina Brown and Philip Vergragt 2008. Bounded
Socio-Technical Experiments as Agents of Systemic Change: The Case of a Zero-
Energy Residential Building. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 75: 107-
130.
66 J. Grin & H. Van de Graaf, Technology Assessment as Learning, 20 Science, Technol-
ogy, and Human Values 72-99 (1996).
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