Transformative Social Learning: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Small-scale farmers play a critical role in global food systems, yet they are also among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, agriculture contributes significantly to environmental degradation, placing farmers at the center of efforts to transition toward more sustainable practices. Despite increasing recognition of the need for transformative change in agriculture, existing approaches to knowledge dissemination have struggled to effectively support farmers in adapting to complex challenges arising from the polycrisis. This research addresses the challenge of understanding how learning processes among small-scale farmers can support transformative change in agricultural systems.
To explore this question, the thesis applies a mixed-methods approach combining a large-scale dataset analysis of farming households in Honduras, a systematic literature review on social learning in agricultural transformations, and a qualitative case study examining participatory learning processes in a reduced-tillage project in Uruguay. Together, these methods provide insights into both broad patterns and context-specific learning dynamics. The goal of this research is to better understand how learning unfolds in small-scale agricultural contexts and how these processes can foster transformative change. In doing so, the thesis contributes to the development of the concept of transformative social learning as a framework for designing and analyzing participatory learning processes that support more resilient and sustainable agricultural transitions.