What is Social Learning?

1. What is Social Learning? Ioan Fazey University St Andrews ioan.fazey@st-andrews.ac.uk 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.

2. Social Learning • Increasingly used as a concept in relation to a wide range of issues: • behaviour change, adaptive co-management, participatory decision-making etc. • Originally • individual learning that takes place in a social setting (e.g. imitating role models – Bandura 1977) • More recently • SL as a process of social change, wider scales of learning, normative goal

3. Confusion in the use of the term SL • Confusion with the conditions or methods used to facilitate SL e.g. with stakeholder participation • Confusion between concept of SL and potential outcomes: ‘Learning’ is an outcome, but is SL improved ecosystem management, enhanced trust, behavioural change? (No) • Lack of distinction between learning of individuals and learning at wider scales: Individuals ultimately learn, but this can be across/at group, community, or societal levels.

4. Three Prerequisites for SL • Learning e.g. a change in understanding of a person’s relationship to the world (with different depths of learning). 2. Learning beyond just individuals 3. Learning through social interaction (e.g. through deliberate processes)

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

6. Key questions • Can deeper held values emerge from participatory/deliberative approaches? • What is the role of participatory/deliberative approaches of valuation to enhancing learning of individual’s and wider learning at larger scales? • What can we learn from what we know about SL to inform or enhance approaches to valuation?