Adaptive Learning Networks: Developing Resource Management Knowledge through Social Learning Forums

The purpose of this paper is to explore adaptive learning networks as a contemporary means by which new resource management knowledge can develop through social learning forums. The paper draws upon recent discussions within two disparate literatures on indigenous knowledge and network theory and is grounded in fieldwork with two Anishinaabe First Nations in northwestern Ontario. The paper has three objectives. First, problematize the principle of representation as a basic way of including the knowledge of indigenous peoples within natural resource and environmental management. Second, utilize network theory as a way to weave together adaptive learning by individuals into a cross-cultural social learning process. Finally, propose an adaptive natural resources and environmental framework that brings together, through a social learning process, the different ways individuals, indigenous peoples and resource managers, perceive environmental change.