Strategy-making for Sustainability: An Institutional Learning Approach to Transformative Planning Practice

Abstract

This paper develops and applies a framework for analysing transformative institutional change in the name of sustainability. It argues that institutional leaning tools afford a useful heuristic lens that can distil important insights from the complexities of an organisation, and subsequently disseminate those findings to wider practice. The new institutional researcher emerges as a reflexive bricoleur, attentive to the politics of situated inquiry amidst complex webs of knowledge production and learning. The paper concludes by emphasising that the institutional learning approach is not a panacea, but does provide a valuable window into strategic efforts to “see” urban areas in different—that is, more sustainable—ways. Ultimately, it is the quality of these democratic deliberations that will make attempts at transformative change for sustainability over the long-term both substantive and worthwhile.