Social learning is central to the Learning for Sustainability site. It refers to how people come together to share knowledge, reflect, and take action on shared challenges. It emphasises collaboration, dialogue, and mutual understanding—especially in settings where multiple perspectives and knowledge systems need to work together.
In these contexts, learning is not just an individual process. It’s relational, collective, and deeply connected to place and purpose. As Sriskandarajah and colleagues put it, “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”.
This kind of learning supports innovation and adaptive change. But it’s not always easy. It takes time to build relationships, ensure all voices are heard, and navigate power imbalances. While events like workshops or field days can help, social learning is most powerful when it’s part of an ongoing process that strengthens collaboration over time.
The curated resources below offer deeper insight into how social learning can be supported in different fields and contexts. They include frameworks, research papers, and practice-based examples from environmental management, systems change, climate adaptation, and evaluation.
Social learning – what it looks like
This post by Will Allen provides a clear introduction to social learning, highlighting its role in fostering dialogue, reflection, and collective action. It explores key strands—systems thinking, network building, dialogue, knowledge management, and reflective practice—that support learning and collaboration. The post also links social learning to adaptive management and systems thinking, showing how they help groups develop shared understanding and lasting solutions.
Social learning, innovation, and sustainability
In this 2024 paper, Marcos da Silva-Jean and Jordana Marques Kneipp examine the relationship between social learning, sustainability, and innovation. While social learning is often credited with fostering innovation, the authors argue that most research focuses on immediate processes and participants, rather than long-term impacts. They introduce a theoretical taxonomy to address this gap and differentiate types of innovation in sustainability contexts.
Embedding learning in systems change: A learning framework for testing uncertainties
This 2024 brief by Kecia Bertermann, Julia Coffman, and colleagues introduces a practical framework for embedding learning within systems change initiatives. It highlights how teams can test uncertainties, surface assumptions, and adapt strategies through evidence and reflection. The framework is particularly valuable for evaluation practitioners seeking to move beyond judgment toward facilitation of learning in complex contexts.
Social learning in conservation and natural resource management
Christopher Jadallah and Heidi Ballard explore the potential of socio-cultural learning theories to strengthen conservation and natural resource management efforts. Their 2021 paper argues that applying these theories can enhance participatory approaches and promote resilient social-ecological systems, offering practical insights for conservation practitioners.
Global analysis of social learning’s archetypes in natural resource management
A 2024 study by Michelle Bonatti and colleagues provides a global analysis of social learning approaches in natural resource management. The authors identify four distinct archetypes—formal multi-stakeholder processes, informal community-based approaches, technology-mediated learning, and Indigenous and traditional knowledge systems—highlighting the importance of context-specific strategies rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Stakeholder engagement in the study and management of invasive alien species
Ross Shackleton and colleagues explore ways to improve stakeholder engagement in invasion science. Their 2018 paper focuses on co-design, co-creation, and co-implementation of research and management actions, highlighting the role of social learning loops in strengthening collaboration across disciplines and sectors.
Social Learning – a basis for practice in environmental management.
Margaret Kilvington and Will Allen provide a practical perspective on social learning as a framework for addressing complex environmental challenges. Their paper examines how fostering human relationships, generating knowledge, and supporting collaborative processes can improve environmental decision-making in contested and uncertain contexts.
Social learning and climate change adaptation: evidence for international development practice.
Jonathan Ensor and Blane Harvey’s 2015 paper examines the role of social learning in climate adaptation, with a focus on developing shared understanding of change processes and linking learning tools to decision-making outcomes.
Eyes Wide Open: Learning as Strategy Under Conditions of Complexity and Uncertainty.
Hallie Preskill and Katelyn Mack present a framework for integrating learning and evaluation into organisational practices. Their 2013 paper draws on systems theory, business strategy, and philanthropic practice to help organisations keep evaluation processes relevant and adaptive.
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 and colleagues provide a detailed review of social learning processes for climate change and natural resource management. This 2013 paper identifies key principles, tools, and evaluation methods, with examples of real-world impact.
What is social learning?
Mark Reed and colleagues clarify key distinctions between social learning, participation, and pro-environmental behaviour. Their 2010 paper defines three essential criteria for social learning: individual changes in understanding, community-level embedding of learning, and learning occurring 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.
Social learning for collaborative natural resource management
Tania Schusler, Daniel Decker, and Max Pfeffer investigate how deliberative planning processes support shared purpose, collaborative relationships, and trust in co-management settings. Their 2003 paper highlights eight key process characteristics that foster effective social learning: open communication, diverse participation, unrestrained thinking, constructive conflict, democratic structure, multiple sources of knowledge, extended engagement, and facilitation.
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.
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