[Original title: Innoveren en leren - Kennismanagement
en plattelandsvernieuwing]
In order to adapt to changes in the rural areas and
to enhance performance, national governments seek for new ways
of policy-making. In recent years, for instance, they developed
policy-programs that created global frameworks that are to be
elaborated and implemented by governments and other actors in
the regions (policy for physical and environmental planning, policy
for valuable landscapes. The ministry of Agriculture, Nature,
and Fisheries changed its policy for the income-support of farmers.
By policy-programs like 'Rural renewal' the ministry substituted
general subsidies by selective subsidies for innovative farmers.
This year the policy-program 'Vital country-side' will succeed
the program. This program will pay more attention to the dissemination
of innovations.
Knowledge plays an important role in innovations
and their dissemination. Innovations occur if actors combine knowledge
they have at their disposal or if they use knowledge they gather
from other recourses. The knowledge system is now in a phase of
transition. The so-called 'REE-triptych' (Research, Extension
and Education) has been abandoned. The present knowledge system,
however doesn't seem to fit well with the innovations either:
innovators only use a part of the available knowledge, the integration
of knowledge appears to be very complicated, and there is a lack
of continuity.
In this report we make some proposals for knowledge-management
and knowledge facilitating for rural renewal. We do this from
the perspective of the innovators and against the background of
changing strategies for policy-making. We define rural renewal
as changes in the use of the country-side and in policy-making
that differ form present uses and policies and that extend individual
farms or small areas. Our definition implies a concern for renewal
at the level of policy-making, i.e. for policy-renewal.
The report is based on the outcomes of a research, which is a continuation of the quick-scan we carried out for the NRLO in 1997. The quick-scan provided a framework for analysis. In our present research we further developed this framework by an analysis of literature and by a case study. On the basis of that research we now present our proposals for knowledge-management and knowledge facilitating. Our research implied three cases:
To further develop our design for knowledge-management
and knowledge facilitating we held some extra interviews with
employees of several knowledge-centers for rural areas and, because
of their innovative character, also for shopkeepers and small
entrepreneurs. At last, we organized a round table-conference
in order to discuss the design with some experts on rural renewal
and knowledge management.
The cases show many faces of rural renewal:
Knowledge plays an important role in these innovations.
Knowledge is so to speak a raw material that actors by learning
proceed into new knowledge. Actors learn if they develop their
views and values or adapt them to changing circumstances. In the
cases we regularly found the following pattern: in successive
workshops the actors make their implicit knowledge explicit and
combine this knowledge with explicit, written knowledge they have
at their disposal and by explicit knowledge provided by consultants
and researchers. At the same time they integrate all this knowledge
by a transdisciplinary framework - e.g. enhancing the identity
of the region - into a perspective on the region or into a plan.
Substantial learning is most important for rural
renewal. For substantial learning means that actors change their
fundamental views and values in order to do better things. If
they learn functionally they 'only' further develop their views
and values in order to do things better. The development of the
Plan Tureluur in East-Schouwen is an example of substantial
learning. The province and the environment organization ZMF no
longer strive for nature protection only. Now they also strive
for nature development. If actors learn substantially they use
and proceed lots of knowledge: implicit and explicit knowledge
about policy-programs, about other actors, about the various sectors,
about inter-relations etc. Knowledge provided by consultants and
researchers also plays an important role.
Knowledge-management and knowledge facilitating are necessary for optimal utilization of knowledge. Knowledge-management implies purposefully steering knowledge-creation, dissemination and utilization in order to enhance the efficiency. The cases show that a deliberate strategy is necessary condition. The knowledge-surveys in the Hoekse Waard provide a large amount input for the workshops. And in the workshops participants learn substantially by becoming more aware of the importance of co-operation and by defining some integral characteristics of the region, that are useful for physical planning. In Northeast Twente the actors work much more in an ad hoc and intuitive way. That is an important reason why they do not succeed in moderating conflicts between agriculture and nature, in stimulating a more open mind and in enhancing creativity among the participants. A deliberate strategy implies at least the following activities:
Optimal knowledge-utilization requires also adequate
facilitating. We suggest regional knowledge-centers, i.e. one
knowledge-center for every region where rural renewal has any
significance. We define a region as an area, which is a unity
concerning physical characteristics, social and administrative
relations and policy-issues, e.g. the Hoekse Waard or the Achterhoek.
One argument for regional centers is that most innovations are
initiated at the regional level. Another argument is that regional
centers are within easy reach for the innovators.
A regional knowledge-center provides an 'office'
where innovators can ask questions about knowledge and knowledge-utilization.
They also provide a physical space for workshops. The center is
a 'laboratory' for joint fact-finding and co-designing. It may
be combined with existing facilities for rural renewal, like the
existing points of support for rural renewal. Knowledge-centers
are flexible, i.e. they adapt to the characteristics of the innovations
and innovation-processes. Therefore, they work on a project basis
and are regularly requested to prove their 'raison d'être'.
The regional centers are to be facilitated by a national knowledge-center.
This center: calls attention to good and bad practices, coaches
and informs regional knowledge-managers, deliberates with national
and provincial governments, consultants and research institutions,
e.g. the Wageningen University and Research Center.
We stress that knowledge-creation, dissemination,
and utilization is affected not only by knowledge-management and
knowledge facilitating but also by some contextual factors. Conflicts
among actors, for instance, are stimuli for them to further develop
their views and values (functional learning). For under these
circumstances they are inclined to gather more knowledge in order
to defend their fundamental views and values against opponents.
At the same time, however, the actors are not very much inclined
to adopt new ways of thinking and acting (substantial learning).
Developments in a wider context - social trends, changing of economic
tide, policy-changes on a higher level - sometimes provide a strong
incentive for substantial learning. For many farmers, for instance,
lower incomes - caused among other things by the change in EU-agricultural
policy - are motives for alternative activities, like landscape
and nature control (substantial learning). Knowledge-managers
are supposed to call these factors into attention. This enables
the innovators to cope with the opportunities and threats they
may generate.