Learning Together for Change. Faciliating innovation in natural resource management through learning process approaches in rural livelihood in Zimbabwe.
- Publication Type
- Book
- Authors
- Hagmann, Jürgen
- Year of publication
- 1999
- Pubisher
- Margraf Verlag , Weikersheim
- Series/labeling
- Kommunikation und Beratung
- ISBN / ISSN / eISSN
- 3-8236-1314-6
- Page (from - to)
- 330
- Keywords
- Beratung, Gemeinsam Lernen, Ressourcenmanagement
The book reflects a learning process in research and extension for natural resource management which the author went through together with rural communities and government extension services in Zimbabwe between 1990 and 1995. It is a case study of concept development and operationalisation of learning process approaches by a practitioner who systematically analysed this complex action research experiment with scientific rigour. The first part develops a theoretical and conceptual framework for innovation processes in natural resource management. The second part verifies this framework through an interdisciplinary and multi-perspective situation analysis of the Zimbabwe case. In the third part, the practical action research process is described and analysed. The most important insight in this book is the demonstration that smallholder farms in Zimbabwe are only economically-driven enterprises to a limited extent. Rather, they reflect a lifeworld based on social and cultural values and norms. The decisions being made in such a system can hardly be judged or predicted through economic criteria and models, as they follow their own logic which is dynamic, value-driven and rather unpredictable. The study shows that innovation processes in livelihood systems of smallholder farmers are highly dependent on the local actors' social organisation and the capacity to innovate and solve problems in a creative way. Significant interventions therefore need to be geared towards the negotiation of socio-political interests and local organisational development of people's institutions and organisations. One vehicle for such processes is the joint development of technical and social innovations by local people with external agents, based on indigenous and scientific knowledge. Experiential and discovery learning have proved to be successful methods which support this process and strengthen rural people's confidence in their own solutions - the key to self-development.