Social learning indicators in sustainability-oriented regional learning networks

Social learning can be seen as a crucial and indispensable condition for successful sustainable development implementation as it is grounded in collective and collaborative learning and supports learning processes associated with relevant socially oriented aims. It is also considered to be a basis for regional cooperation where different stakeholders are brought together to share knowledge and information about sustainable development within a community and enter into a dialog with the lay public. With this in mind, the authors focus their attention on how to build a framework for initiating and successfully continuing participative processes oriented toward enhancing regional sustainability. They analyze models of Regional Sustainability Initiatives (RSI) and Regional Centers of Expertise (RCE) that represent learning platforms for sustainability oriented regional cooperation with the aim of identifying general principles of efficiency and building a system for their assessment based on indicators. The most significant characteristics of social learning processes are identified, and qualitative as well as quantitative indicators are developed and applied to projects gathered together in the LENSUS Database. These indicators are then discussed with regard to social learning principles and the potential interconnectedness of social learning with a society's social capital. The indicators represent a relative measure for the comparison of processes and/or projects in the context of assessment and its specific objectives. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.