Learning differently

Abstract

Learning is predicated on turning towards new ideas and competences, and thus turning away from previous practices. Thus, with learning comes its necessary twin: forgetting. It is a mixed bag of blessings, for individuals as well as for organizations. On the one hand, it is argued that organizational forgetting helps to prevent further reproduction of old pathologies. On the other, it may signify loss of communal identity and discontinuity. The managerialist turn under neoliberalism brought a dogma of imperative of constant change, which results in erosion and disintegration of structures and communities and undermines resistance. This article is focussed on the idea of learning differently, which incorporates forgetting but with an awareness and reflexivity of what is being lost. The curating of memory helps not just to preserve memories and knowledge but to rediscover the past for the needs of the present. Learning differently requires a thoughtful relationship with the past and may support regeneration, instead of linear change management.