Communication, Participation & Social-Ecological Learning - VHL UAS

Contemporary transitions responding to climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity require shared visions on a sustainable future. Our research group Communication, Participation & Social-Ecological learning (CoPSEL) at @Hogeschool van Hall Larenstein aims to contribute to transition processes for sustainable futures by exploring processes of communication, participation and social-ecological learning in regional, national and international contexts. The recent advice on the role of the central government in the transition to a sustainable economy of the Council for Environment and Infrastructure refers to this in the recommendation formulated as “Transitions require a coherent future vision on a sustainable society despite the uncertainty on how this future will develop”. This recommendation emphasises the relevance of a multi-stakeholder and system approach while working on assigned responsibilities in which short term interests and prevailing paradigms conflict with long term ambitions, ‘social-imaginaries’ and desirable governance practices. The group works in arenas of knowledge co-creation, participatory and deliberative governance focusing on projects and partnerships that takes place in configurations such as living labs where the private sector, civil society, knowledge institutions and the government collaborate. Applying a perspective of experience capitalisation highlights the interest of the group to document and share outcomes of value creation in citizen, professional and academic spaces. The research group has a specific expertise in the field of visual learning strategies, serious gaming and developing Living Labs.