Enhancing Environmental Appraisal Effectiveness: Towards an Understanding of Internal Context Conditions in Organisational Learning

Part of a wider comparative European research project on developing the learning potential of appraisal in spatial planning in the UK, Germany and Italy, this paper aims to explore whether context conditions can facilitate internal organisational reforms and changes, trigger appraisal effectiveness, and facilitate organisational learning. The discussion comprises a synthesis of the environmental appraisal and organisational learning literatures and illustrates the relevance and applicability of this body of work for wider planning practice through an examination of the Comune of Ravenna, Italy. The insights from the case study suggest that sensitivity to internal context conditions is critical to understanding the capacity for organisations to learn, and illustrates how the potential for learning might exist if an organisation is open to nurturing it.