Trend: participation and (social) learning
Research on social learning in participatory water
management commonly stems, at least in Europe, from
Bandura’s concept of social imitation and modeling (Bandura
and Walters 1963, Bandura 1977), as well as Habermas’s
concept of communicative action (Habermas 1987).
Researchers focusing on this latter concept (e.g., Röling 2002,
SLIM Project 2004, Ridder et al. 2005, Tàbara and Pahl-Wostl
2007, Pahl-Wostl et al. 2008a) are interested in what happens
as a result of information exchanges among actors in
participatory processes in terms of their understanding of the
natural and social systems, i.e., cognitive learning, the quality
of their relationships, their skills, for example, to participate
constructively in a debate or negotiation, and their willingness
and ability to reach a consensus.