Participatory Learning and Communication Approaches for Manging Pluralism

Abstract

"Using participatory learning and communication tools for a better understanding of natural resource management. Consider three blind people, each feeling different parts of an elephant--the trunk, the tail and the leg--and thereafter describing three very different 'animals. They could bring together their descriptions and agree on one 'common elephant'. In such a case, their perceptions would have been enriched by a group learning process which created new common meaning beyond individual experiences. But group learning for natural resource management is substantially more complex."