Social Learning for Sustainability - SOLES

Abstract
The project started in September 2000. It is joint research-action project of partners form South America, Africa, Asia and Europe: Bolivia: “Agroecology Program of the University of Cochabamba” (Agroecología Universidad Cochabamba – AGRUCO, de la Universidad Mayor de San Simón - UMSS ). India: SAMPARK. Mali: Réseau de modérateurs de formation autodidacte au Mali. Switzerland: Centre for Development and Environment – CDE (University of Bern). Additionally supporting academic agencies are in Germany, the Institute of Rural Sociology of Munich – IRS (Prof. Dr. Joachim Ziche) and in Spain the Instituto de Sociología y Estudios Campesinos - ISEC of Córdoba (Prof. Dr. Eduardo Sevilla)
The project puts emphasis on the investigation of Learning Processes and Platforms for Negotiating Sustainable Resource Management (SRM) and the related Potentials and Constraints of 'Autodidactic Learning for Sustainability' (ALS) in an Intercultural Perspective
ALS is a training instrument developed by CDE together with partners from Africa, Asia and South America (details see ALS). Experience showed that the realisation of ALS workshops can be considered also as an important instrument in extension directed to the initiation or enhancement of platforms for the negotiation of SRM as part of a social learning process which involves a great number of different actors groups.
The effectiveness of ALS as an instrument for the moderation of social learning processes in communities and the supporting institutions until now has not been assessed scientifically. The partners of the project therefore agreed on a collaborative re-search programme funded by the Swiss Foundation for Scientific Research. The activities were initiated in September 2000 and will last until August 2003.
Research Plan
The proposed research project contains three case studies carried out by researches affiliated with the partner institutions in the south with scientific support from CDE and one comparative study carried out by a researcher affiliated with CDE. It will be supported and complemented by research carried out by a post-doc fellow. Based on the identified research deficits, the research project is designed to address the following main objective:
To evaluation the potential and constraints of social learning and negotiation processes in Sustainable Resource Management (SRM), and the potential to enhance them through 'Autodidactic Learning for Sustainability' (ALS) on the level of communities and development institutions.
The detailed research project can be found under SOLES.

Progress in the first year
In the first year the research candidates were selected. After defining their specific research projects eight professionals in 4 countries have successfully started with the field work.
Seven from eight research projects are putting emphasis on the presently on going social learning processes and negotiation platforms relevant for SRM. In Bolivia the investigation centres in social learning processes related to soil conservation and temporary inter-ecological migrations. In India it was decided to focus on social learning processes relevant for the use of water resources. In Mali special emphasis will be given to the negotiation platforms that have emerged as a result of the realisation of ALS workshops.