Transformative Learning Networks: insights from four case studies

Paper presented at the 60th annual meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, July 28, 2016 in Boulder, Colorado.In this paper, we consider how learning networks build capacity for system transformation. We define learning networks as inter-organizational voluntary collaboratives that nurture professional expertise, and describe their potential to catalyze systemic change by disrupting old habits, fostering new relationships, and providing freedom to experiment. We underscore the complexity of designing, facilitating, and sustaining learning networks, noting four distinct ways learning networks can foster systemic resilience, 1) social-psychological 2) engineering 3) social-ecological, and 4) emancipatory. We then describe our research methods and introduce four learning network case study analyses, in order of their age and relative progress towards transformation:•National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI)•100 Resilient Cities Network (100RC)•Fire Adapted Community Learning Network (FACNet)•START (Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Research & Training)After describing each network’s origins, approach to promoting transformative change, and structure, we apply three exploratory questions across our cases:•How do network facilitators “netweave” within and across participating sites?•Is there evidence of organizational learning taking place in each network over time?•What transformative capacity do we see developing in each network?We conclude by describing the contribution of this analysis to a framework we are developing to explore how learning networks foster resilience within, between, and across scales.