Social learning
“Sustainability, is better seen as a measure of the relationship between the community as learners and their environments, rather than an externally designed goal to be achieved” (Sriskandarajah et al, 1991).
The concept of social learning is central to the Learning for Sustainability site. It refers to how groups of people come together to learn, share knowledge, and take action to address shared challenges. Social learning relies on dialogue, reflection, and collaboration to build mutual understanding and create solutions that are inclusive, flexible, and effective over time. It recognises that real progress on sustainability comes from combining diverse perspectives and learning together.
Social learning is increasingly seen as vital for addressing complex issues, helping to foster innovation and new ways of thinking. However, putting it into practice is not straightforward. It can be challenging to ensure that everyone’s voices are heard, that power imbalances are addressed, and that individual and group learning are effectively connected. These factors add to its complexity but also highlight its potential to drive meaningful change when done well.
A brief introductory post to the concept – Social learning: what it looks like – can be found in the blog section of this site. While one-off events like workshops or field days can contribute to social learning, they are most effective when embedded within an ongoing process that develops over time and draws on interconnected strands of activity. This site section highlights five key strands underpinning social learning – i) systems thinking; ii) network building; iii) dialogue; iv) knowledge management; and v) reflective practice.
The Learning for Sustainability site as a whole explores a broader set of topics that contribute to the development of sustainable and inclusive solutions, such as facilitation, adaptive management, and participatory approaches Together, these resources can equip practitioners to foster collaborative learning, innovation, and meangingful action across diverse contexts.
This page highlights strategies and resources for implementing social learning in practice. It offers insights for fostering dialogue, building trust, and encouraging collective action to address complex environmental and social challenges. Below, you will find links to papers and tools that explore how social learning can initiate and support meaningful change.
Social learning, innovation, and sustainability
This 2024 paper by Marcos da Silva-Jean and Jordana Marques Kneipp examines the intersections of social learning, sustainability, and innovation, highlighting social learning’s critical role in promoting both sustainability and innovation. The study reveals that while social learning creates opportunities for innovation and change, most research focuses on the processes and participants of social learning interventions rather than their long-term impacts on individuals. The paper contributes a theoretical taxonomy and identifies gaps in current research, particularly in differentiating various types of innovation within the context of sustainability.
Social learning in conservation and natural resource management
This 2021 paper by Christopher Jadallah and Heidi Ballard highlights the potential of socio-cultural learning theories to enhance our understanding of social learning in conservation and natural resource management. It argues that integrating these theories can help practitioners design more effective participatory approaches that foster resilient social-ecological systems. By offering frameworks to analyze learning at both individual and collective levels within specific contexts, these theories can guide the development of strategies that promote equitable and impactful social learning among diverse stakeholders.
Global analysis of social learning’s archetypes in natural resource management
This 2024 paper by Michelle Bonatti and colleagues provides a groundbreaking global analysis of social learning in natural resource management. The study identifies four distinct archetypes of social learning approaches: formal multi-stakeholder processes, informal community-based approaches, technology-mediated learning, and indigenous and traditional knowledge systems. These archetypes show clear geographical and socio-economic patterns, challenging the notion of a one-size-fits-all approach to social learning.
Stakeholder engagement in the study and management of invasive alien species
This paper by Ross Shackleton et al. (2018) highlights strategies for improving stakeholder engagement in invasion science. The authors explore ways to foster co-design, co-creation, and co-implementation of research and management actions; promote social learning through stakeholder feedback loops; and enhance collaboration across disciplines and sectors. These approaches aim to create holistic and effective solutions to biological invasions.
Social Learning – a basis for practice in environmental management.
This chapter by Margaret Kilvington and Will Allen explores how social learning provides a framework for addressing complex environmental problems. It focuses on fostering human relationships, generating knowledge, and supporting decision-making in contested and uncertain contexts.
Social learning and climate change adaptation: evidence for international development practice.
Jonathan Ensor and Blane Harvey (2015) examine lessons for international development practice. They emphasise developing a shared understanding of change processes, linking learning tools to desired outcomes, and ensuring inclusive decision-making that accounts for social complexity.
Eyes Wide Open: Learning as Strategy Under Conditions of Complexity and Uncertainty.
Hallie Preskill and Katelyn Mack (2013) offer a framework for systematically integrating learning and evaluation into organisational practices. The guide helps organisations align evaluation activities with evolving goals to ensure they remain relevant and impactful.The report draws on literature from systems theory, business strategy, and philanthropic practice.
Building a strategic learning and evaluation system for your organization
The aim of this 2013 report by Hallie Preskill and Katelyn Mack acknowledges a need for a more strategic approach to evaluation. In this guide, they provide a framework and set of practices that can help organizations be more systematic, coordinated, and intentional about what to evaluate, when, why, with whom, and with what resources. When fully implemented, these elements work together to ensure that learning and evaluation activities reflect and feed into an organization’s latest thinking.
Social learning in practice: A review of lessons, impacts and tools for climate change
Blane Harvey et al. (2013) provide a detailed review of social learning processes for climate change and natural resource management. The report identifies key principles, tools, and evaluation methods, highlighting examples of the impacts achieved through social learning approaches.
What is social learning?
Mark Reed et al. (2010) clarify the concept of social learning and differentiate it from related ideas like participation and pro-environmental behaviour. They outline three criteria for social learning: individual changes in understanding, embedding these changes within communities, and achieving them through social interactions.
Learning more effectively from experience
This paper by Ioan Fazey and colleagues reviews some of the research from cognitive psychology and phenomenography to present a way of thinking about learning to assist individuals to make better use of their personal experiences to develop understanding of environmental systems. The broader implications of individual learning are also discussed in relation to organizational learning, the role of experiential knowledge for conservation, and for achieving greater awareness of the need for ecologically sustainable activity.
Social learning as a framework for environmental management
This article by Margaret Kilvington outlines key elements of social learning, grouped into learning and thinking, group participation, and social and institutional factors. It highlights the potential of social learning to support collaborative decision-making and action.
Using participatory and learning-based approaches for environmental management to help achieve constructive behaviour change
This report from Will Allen, Margaret Kilvington, and Chrys Horn looks at how agencies can influence people’s behaviour to improve environmental management. It highlights new approaches that work with multi-stakeholder groups and teams, in particular those which improve motivation, information flows, and collaborative learning. The report covers four main areas: i) a review of contemporary approaches to environmental policy making; ii) a review of frameworks for supporting behaviour change; iii) providing an outline of the key concepts for managing participation in practice; and iv) a description of techniques for building group capacity for environmental change.
Learning for development: A literature review
This 2004 paper by Katherine Pasteur acknowledges that organisational learning is increasingly being viewed as key to improving development performance and impact. It briefly summarise literature on knowledge, learning and the learning organisation from both the corporate and the development sectors. It then helps develop an understanding of learning as reflection and reflexivity. The paper provides a review of a number of key theories which help to inform an improved understanding of learning as reflection and reflexivity. Finally it explores some of the organisational implications for institutionalising this type of learning.
Social learning for collaborative natural resource management
This paper by Tania Schusler, Daniel Decker and Max Pfeffer contributes to understanding about the potential and limitations of social learning for collaborative natural resource management. Participants in a deliberative planning process involving a state agency and local communities developed common purpose and collaborative relationships, two requisites of comanagement. Eight process characteristics fostered social learning: open communication, diverse participation, unrestrained thinking, constructive conflict, democratic structure, multiple sources of knowledge, extended engagement, and facilitation. Social learning is necessary but not sufficient for collaborative management. Other requisites for comanagement, including capacity, appropriate processes, appropriate structures, and supportive policies, are necessary to sustain joint action.
Other key pages that expand on the five strands of social learning are systems thinking, network building, dialogue, knowledge management, and reflective practice. Information on these can be accessed through the ‘social learning’ index above. Planning and evaluation comprise an important component of reflective practice, and are expanded into their own topic area in the menu bar above. Concepts such as innovation systems and adaptive management are also social learning-based..
