THEMATIC ANALYSIS: GETTING TO GRIPS WITH CITY-TO-CITY LEARNING
5.6. Summary and conclusions
Working as a manager in the eThekwini Municipality in the field of city-to-city learning and tasked with a mandate to develop the capacities of African municipalities (as outlined in the methodology chapter), the researcher was clearly perceived as an ‘insider’ within the local government bureaucracy. It is suggested that it is for this reason; that through critical reflection, perhaps based on familiarity and trust with the researcher, results emerged that represented key ‘aha’ moments not only for the researcher, but for the respondents themselves. This is an important point to note, as the research provided a unique opportunity for the practitioners to introspect, identify challenges, and most importantly, begin to dialogue about the direction that future learning should take.
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Duggleby (2005) and Cameron (2000) have recognized this transformative power of such research, especially when the right conditions are created. This is also consistent with the phronetic research approach and pragmatic philosophical stance outlined in the conceptual framework earlier, and as espoused by the numerous researchers cited earlier working in this tradition. It is indeed exciting that doctoral research can be used a tool for critical reflection with the aim of transforming the quality of practice in southern Africa. This point was acknowledged by the practitioners themselves and augurs well for future academic and local government cooperation.
In this section, a succinct overview of the key findings emerging from a discussion of the three key research themes is presented. Some of the insights that emerged from the focus group sessions and in-depth interviews have not been documented in southern Africa and are significant in the process of exposing the rich, yet underground knowledge economy in city-to city learning.
The first key finding is that practitioners are able to identify clear and measurable characteristics of successful strategic planning processes that are valued and recognized as worthy of being emulated. The case study analysis crystallized a set of five distinct areas that is useful in providing a yardstick to measure good urban strategic planning practice. Whilst not the focus of this research, this has been identified as an important area for future research collaboration.
Secondly, and more importantly, the case study revealed that whilst cities themselves are constantly searching for city partnerships, there is a reliance on brokers that help connect cities with each other. These brokers, it was found are often international agents such as the UCLG that are able not just to match demand and supply in the knowledge economy, but critically they are able to access funding for such partnerships from donor agencies.
The third related significant finding emerging from the analysis is the importance of investing in an entrenched knowledge management system that is able to effectively promote institutionalized learning, as was the case with eThekwini Municipality’s MILE. The creation of such a vehicle dedicated to learning allowed time and energy for the development of highly skilled facilitators who deliberately created the conditions for deliberations in a non-threatening environment, reinforcing the notions of Nonaka’s (1994) ba and Aydalot’s (1986) innovative milieu, which they
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argued was key for successful learning. Such a vehicle too, it appeared, was a catalyst for enabling
“higher order learning” (Campbell, 2012b: 11), placing eThekwini Municipality with proactive learners such as Seattle.
In a detailed analysis of how practitioners themselves make sense of city-to-city learning, four distinct notions emerged. Whilst these will not be repeated here, what stood out in the analysis is the notion of a two-way learning process arising from shared life-worlds, given the practitioners common backgrounds. This finding appeared to confirm Habermas’ (1990) contention that this common worldview facilitated action that was transformative. Most critically, what the case study findings revealed, however, was that whilst this worldview was a necessary condition, it may not be sufficient for transformational action. There appeared to be another critical social ingredient that emerged later in the analysis. The study showed that building up strong ties in a network of trusted relationships, developed through interactions in social settings and by speaking their minds without the fear of retribution was actually a fundamentally important ingredient that spurred on critical reflection and ultimately led to transformative action.
The case study also unearthed discontent from some quarters around the notion of ‘mentorship’ – a seemingly neutral concept that had until the intervention of this research project continued to be used by the UCLG and its international partners. Whilst this concept could be applied to individuals, there was resistance to applying this term to cities. For some practitioners, this spoke to an unequal relationship where one was perceived to be giving and the other merely receiving.
In the context of dynamic African cities, it was argued that practitioners can always learn from each other despite differences in relation to size, complexity and context. The preferred notion of
‘learning exchange’ or ‘peer-learning’ was mooted. Based on the analogy of the development of human relationship from early courtship to consolidation, a five-staged learning model was also suggested, each with distinct characteristics that provided opportunities to test the relevance of contemporary learning literature in the southern African context.
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As indicated earlier, the Cities Alliance and UCLG have indicated great interest in this research, and an opportunity for feedback was created in Mozambique and more recently in Barcelona in September 2015 to allow the preliminary findings of the research to be shared. This is consistent with the orientation of the practice movement and the phronetic research planning tradition referred to in the conceptual framework. Furthermore, every attempt to share lessons learned in order to improve the quality of strategic planning practice will be made post publication of the full research project. This is important as knowledge sharing has an important transformative role and it can be an important catalyst in re-configuring the geographies of learning and helping to distribute power more evenly. It is this aspect of the politics of city-to-city learning that will be considered next.
In this first of two analytical chapters, the terrain of city-to-city learning has been clearly defined and the process of excavation to explore the underground, unearthed knowledge economy has well begun. This journey of discovery continues in the next chapter through an exploration of the expression of power and how it plays itself. An assessment of the mentorship program is also conducted using the insights gained from the in-depth interviews and from analysis of the data collected from the census surveys in both cities.
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