From learning to fragile governance: Regional economic development in rural Peru

This article analyzes the potential of learning processes to promote governance and economic development in rural areas. It examines how three types of learning in the Lurín River Basin in Peru --technical expertise, storytelling, and experiential knowledge - combine to empower rural communities to act collectively. Based on an analysis of three community-led economic development processes--irrigation improvements, tourism and food processing--we show that learning can result in new, albeit fragile, forms of governance and social capital. Fragile governance can turn into regional economic development when learning results in the development of a regional narrative and coordination occurs across both vertical and horizontal network dimensions.