Learning for Sustainability (LfS) web portal Site update: September 2011
This email update provides a brief introduction to new resources that have been added to the Learning for Sustainability (LfS) site - http://learningforsustainability.net/ - in the past couple of months. The linked site newsletter provides direct links to new papers looking at complexity, engagement, adaptation and social capital. The site brings together resources that help address the social and capacity building aspects of managing collective interests within complex decision making environments. The LfS site highlights the wide range of social skills and processes that are needed to support constructive collaboration, and indicates how these skills and processes can be interwoven to achieve more integrated and effective outcomes. It brings links to several hundred annotated on-line resources from different sectors and geographic areas together in one easy to access place, and it concentrates on providing links to open access materials. The featured links in this newsletter are drawn from some of the new sections updated recently. Direct links to these papers are provided through the on-line update at http://learningforsustainability.net/newsletters/sep11.php - and they include the following: * "Taking responsibility for complexity"- This ODI briefing paper aims: to give readers the tools to decide when a problem is complex, outline why this matters, and provide guidance on how to achieve results in the face of complexity. * "Liberating structures: A new pattern language for engagement"- This recent OD Practitioner paper by Lisa Kimball looks at how managers can generate meaningful engagement that constructively transforms work and organizations. It shows that to facilitate significant, transformative changes in organizations we need to make a profound change in how people interact, not just at off sites and other special occasion meetings, but in all the get togethers that make up daily life in organizations. * "Forests and Climate Change: Linking Adaptation and Mitigation"- Climate change can be addressed by mitigation and adaptation. However, there is a need to explore the linkages between these two options in order to understand their trade-offs and synergies. This paper explores this issue using Latin American examples. * "The Role of ICT in Building Communities and Social Capital"- This paper examines the debate around the impact of ICT and argues that ICT supplements and transforms social capital rather than diminishing it. This update is posted on an occasional basis - please feel free to forward to interested colleagues. Feedback is welcomed, and visitors are encouraged to suggest papers, reports and other material to add. Thanks to those of you who have pointed to papers and other links for inclusion and sharing among the wider global community of practice in this area. The site has now been operating for more than 10 years and receives more than 600 visitors each day, with the highest number of visits in any one day being in excess of 1500. You can visit the Learning for Sustainability (LfS) site directly at http://learningforsustainability.net and your ideas and suggestions for links are welcomed. Wishing you all the best with your ongoing activities. Dr. Will Allen LearningForSustainability.net - http://learningforsustainability.net/ Helping people collaborate and innovate E-mail: w...@learningforsustainability.net
