Learning or evaluating? Towards a negotiation-of-meaning approach to learning in transition governance

Welfare state transitions require not only experimentation and social learning to explore the potential of innovations for sustainable development but also monitoring to draw vital lessons from experiments for application now and in the future. However, current approaches to learning are mostly concerned with what happens within the boundaries of innovation experiments, whereas transitions in the making feature important boundary-crossing processes between initiatives and their environment. In this paper, we explore the learning approach of negotiation of meaning as a basis for transition monitoring in a New Zealand programme for agricultural innovation called ‘Primary Innovation’. We used a mix of specifically crafted value add documents and workshops to foster learning processes between innovation projects and incumbents. Results suggest that a negotiation-of-meaning perspective offers an important complement to our understanding of learning processes in transition contexts and how to facilitate them. •Learning processes remain under-conceptualised in transition science.•Transition-specific contexts require specific approaches to learning.•Negotiation of meaning supports learning in transitions.•“Value Add Documents” support innovation programme monitoring.•Welfare states have specific potential to support learning.