From Extension to Communication for Innovation 233those interactions between people that concern their agroecological environment.
This meeting of social and natural scientists’ views is partly what makes our field
of study so interesting, but it also generates tensions since social scientists and
natural scientists often have very different ideas about the role and potential of
scientific knowledge. Apart from this, social scientists and natural scientists tend
to face rather different methodological challenges, and thus tend to work in very
different ways. Thus, when natural scientists start to get involved in communica-
tion and innovation studies it often takes them a while to adjust.
Extension training/communication for innovation training
Conventionally, the term ‘extension training’ referred to the process through which
extension staff became equipped to do their job. This kind of training has also
been referred to as ‘extension education’. However, in view of the strong educa-
tional connotations in early definitions of extension, this latter term has also been
used synonymously with extension practice itself (e.g. Supe, 1983). In any case, we
now prefer the term ‘communication for innovation training’. Such training pro-
vides change agents at different levels in organizations (management, field workers
etc.) with insights and experiences for taking strategic and operational decisions in
communicative intervention. It may cover technical, methodical and/or manage-
ment issues, and it can take place in various ways; for example through formal
courses, fixed or flexible curricula, practicals, supervision, distance education,
workshops and organization development trajectories.
Ideally, the findings from communication and innovation studies offer inspira-
tion to those who perform communication for innovation training. Thus, we hope
that trainers can pick out elements of this book, connect these with other experi-
ences, and translate the resulting mix of insights into training modules for com-
munication workers.
Extension research/communication for innovation research
We can distinguish two types of extension, or communication for innovation,
research. First, as an integral part of communication for innovation activities,
change agents regularly need to engage in investigation and research, such as situa-
tion analysis, exploration, literature research, on-farm research, pretesting, monitor-
ing and evaluation. Typically, such research is ‘decision oriented’ in that it helps
communication workers and others to make decisions about the nature and content
of their future activities. We refer to this kind of activity as ‘decision-oriented
research’, which is part of an intervention process. In order to yield useable results,
this kind of research cannot be a detached activity carried out by an isolated inves-
tigator. Rather, considerable interaction with prospective clients is needed to make
sure that the decisions taken are in line with their needs and requirements.
Earlier we touched on a second type of research, which is usually carried out
by scholars in communication and innovation studies (or extension science; see