Extension and Education Services: Applying Service-Dominant Logic Through Peer-to-Peer Learning

Abstract

Extension is a common approach used to inform the critical decisions made by family forest owners (FFOs) about the future of their land, which could have a tremendous impact on the public benefit these lands provide. The present extension model, based widely on goods-dominant (G-D) logic, is in many cases inefficient in reaching FFOs and has limited success with unengaged FFOs. Outreach strategies that incorporate service-dominant (S-D) logic into their approach, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) learning, hold significant potential to adapt to dynamic service ecosystems and co-create value for FFOs. Instead of a few extension professionals trying to meet the needs of many FFOs in a region, FFOs can help one another, which increases the efficiency and effectiveness of extension and outreach. A wide web of peers with a variety of knowledge and experience can inform the decisions that FFOs make about their forest, helping to maintain or even increase the public benefit the land provides. Extension professionals can play a critical role not only as sources of operant resources but also as organizers and facilitators of P2P learning. Policies that divest themselves of G-D logic-based extension and reinvest in S-D logic-based extension can increase the adoption of these practices and thus the number of informed FFO decisions. In this chapter, we discuss the problems with the G-D logic approach to extension, the opportunities presented by S-D logic extension, ideas for cultivating FFO peer networks, and the different roles extension professionals can play to facilitate them.