Guiding principles for place-based, collective learning in citizen-led environmental movements: insights from India

Environmental challenges such as pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change require not only individual behavioral change but also collective capacity for shared understanding and action. Yet the social and contextual processes that enable communities to learn and act together remain underexplored. This study examines how collective, place-based environmental learning occurs within the Pune River Revival movement in India. Guided by the Communities of Practice framework, we conducted sixteen semi-structured interviews and identified thematically the relational and contextual conditions shaping participants’ engagement. Findings reveal five interrelated guiding principles that sustained collective learning: (1) collective knowledge creation through multimodal participation, (2) place attachment as an entry point for engagement, (3) distributed expertise and role fluidity, (4) fostering harmonious relationships and leveraging social capital, and (5) the emergence of shared values and collective obligation. Together, these principles illustrate how environmental movements function as living learning systems in which knowledge, identity, and action are co-constructed through participation rather than formal instruction. This study offers empirically grounded guidance for environmental educators and civic organizers.