Learning challenges and sustainable development: A methodological perspective

Issue title: Special Section: Work and Sustainable Development

Guest editors: Pascal Béguin and Francisco Moura Duarte

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Seppänen, Laura

Affiliations: Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland. Tel.: +358 46 851 4752; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: BACKGROUND:Sustainable development requires learning, but the contents of learning are often complex and ambiguous. This requires new integrated approaches from research. It is argued that investigation of people’s learning challenges in every-day work is beneficial for research on sustainable development. OBJECTIVE:The aim of the paper is to describe a research method for examining learning challenges in promoting sustainable development. This method is illustrated with a case example from organic vegetable farming in Finland. METHODS:The method, based on Activity Theory, combines historical analysis with qualitative analysis of need expressions in discourse data. RESULTS:The method linking local and subjective need expressions with general historical analysis is a promising way to overcome the gap between the individual and society, so much needed in research for sustainable development. CONCLUSIONS:Dialectically informed historical frameworks have practical value as tools in collaborative negotiations and participatory designs for sustainable development. The simultaneous use of systemic and subjective perspectives allows researchers to manage the complexity of practical work activities and to avoid too simplistic presumptions about sustainable development.

Keywords: Organic vegetable farming, activity theory, contradictions, need expressions

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-172564

Journal: Work, vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 315-324, 2017