Organisational learning for sustainability transitions

Sustainability transitions imply a regime shift, yet learning at the regime level is rather overlooked by transition studies. This paper aims to make a contribution to bridge this gap by presenting a conceptual discussion on... [ view full abstract ]

Sustainability transitions imply a regime shift, yet learning at the regime level is rather overlooked by transition studies. This paper aims to make a contribution to bridge this gap by presenting a conceptual discussion on role played by mainstream actors in learning in transitions. It borrows insights from the academic debate on organisational learning, identifying aspects and types of learning and change processes at organisational contexts that can help to better understand learning within regime organisations and in the context of niche-regime interactions. Moreover, it discusses how multiple loops learning by regime organisations can be related to the highly social and interactive learning processes required for sustainability transitions. The paper puts forward the argument that the higher end of the potential spectrum of organisational change would represent a break of the lock-in nature of learning at regime level, and could be compared with the powerful changes implied by transitions.