Co-Generative Learning

The co-generative learning model emerged as a way of conceptualizing roles, processes and learning dynamics in action research projects as centred on joint employee and management engagement in seeking solutions to concrete problems in both manufacturing and service organizations. Its pragmatic foundations view all participants in the change process as capable of and actively involved in creating new solutions to particular problems. This participatory dimension is anchored in a general belief in participatory democracy as a way of solving social and organizational problems. In business, it affirms that employees should have opportunities to manage their own working conditions, and it is the work-life equivalent of a commitment to democracy in general. Thus, co-generative practices in work life are seen as a necessary part of the political/electoral in society.

The model relies on the mutual learning that takes place when local problem owners (insiders) and facilitating researchers (either outsiders or specialists within the organization) join forces to solve pertinent local problems. Central to this is the creation of learning arenas where insiders and outsiders meet and learn together. A learning and developmental arena is composed of the participants, a physical structure and the actual learning processes that take place. The grounding factor in running a co-generative learning process is for the facilitator to construct learning arenas that enable the local stakeholders to generate the necessary knowledge and action designs to solve their pressing problems.

The co-generative model builds fundamentally on democratic beliefs and values, such as the ability and the right of everyone to exercise control over their own life situation. Methodologically, the model is anchored in a pragmatic philosophical position that new knowledge is developed through concrete experimentation aimed at solving practical problems.

The co-generative learning model has the potential to democratize knowledge generation processes in society at large. Participative involvement by all relevant stakeholders in shaping practical solutions to shared problems creates the basis for knowledge construction based on their own experiences and interests. While participation in general political and economic activity at the societal level is very important, a democratic society is one in which democratic processes of creating new knowledge and designing collaborative actions are broadly diffused through work, community and political structures.