What is Social learning?

• Importance

• 3 problems

• 3 key themes

• Our definition

The promise of

Social Learning

Defining...

Defining...• Early conceptions

• Emerging SE literature

Confusion

Conflation

1. Methods2. Outcomes3. Interaction

Clarifying Social Learning

• How to link cause and affect?• How to assess if social learning

has occurred?• How to evaluate?

procrastination is something ... best put off until tomorrow.

— Gerald Vaughan

So...What is

SOCIAL LEARNING?

to be considered social learning, a process must…

change in understanding

•Simple•Transformative•Really transformative!

beyond the individual

by social interactio

n

Clearer?

“A change in understanding that goes beyond the individual to be situated in wider social units or communities of practice through social interactions between actors in social networks.”

Future work• Extent of social learning• Extent participation facilitates• Refining design for social

learning• Influence on social-ecological

outcomes

Anna Evely a.c.evely@abdn.ac.uk

University of St. Andrewsand Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability

Twitter: @AnnaEvely, @AberdeenCES, @reluuplands @lecmsr

Thanks also to:Rosalind Bryce, Anke Fischer, Nicky Geeson, Joe Holden, Colin Hunter, Steve Redpath, Louise Reid, Stephan Rist, Gudrun Schwilch, Bill Slee, and Petra Vergunst

Reed, M. S., A. C. Evely, G. Cundill, I. Fazey, J. Glass, A. Laing, J. Newig, B. Parrish, C. Prell, C. Raymond, and L. C. Stringer. 2010. What is social learning? Ecology and Society 15(4): r1. [online]