ABSTRACT
The design of the collective learning cycle was to bring together all interested parties in the issue, have them agree on an ideal solution and review existing factual information; then brainstorm new ideas and agree on appropriate action. The workshops struck several roadblocks during the early use of the social learning cycle. Each learning cycle was intended to end in a joint action. Topics ranged from citizen concern for the environment, a city with issues for its environmental health, development of a local government region, national environmental sustainability, transformational change and many more. Whatever the relationship between an individual and their society, physicist-philosopher David Bohm points out that living with change necessarily involves learning. The conflict that erupted when the groups were responding to the ‘facts’ step in the learning cycle was partly due to a collision course between the members of the knowledge cultures.
