Social Learning and Sustainability: Exploring Critical Issues in Relation to Environmental Change and Governance

The document details a workshop held at the Stockholm Resilience Centre involving approximately 35 participants. It examines social learning across four primary domains: natural resource management, climate change adaptation, social learning platforms, and the intersection of education and society. The proceedings highlight the definitional complexity of 'social learning', the influence of power dynamics, and the challenges of measuring learning outcomes in time-bound participatory projects. Key discussions emphasize the need for multi-level learning to build adaptive capacity in social-ecological systems and the role of 'shadow spaces' in facilitating international governance.

• Social learning is characterized by significant definitional complexity, with participants noting that it is often used synonymously with other participatory research fields, which risks making the term lose its meaningfulness.
• In the context of international environmental governance, 'shadow spaces' can facilitate learning and help reframe approaches to resolve perceived conflicts, particularly when international society is reorganizing.
• Power dynamics and hierarchies often undermine social learning processes; in some Southeast Asian contexts, hybrid governance regimes can obstruct collective organization and group problem-solving.
• Participatory research projects that are time-bound often suffer from fragility, where participants may revert to conventional routines once the project ends because learning arenas are not integrated into everyday professional practices.
• Effective adaptive capacity in resource governance regimes is linked to multi-level and multi-loop learning, though many climate change adaptation efforts remain stuck in 'single-loop learning'.
• Measuring social learning remains a significant challenge due to the lack of baselines in non-workshop contexts and the difficulty of aggregating individual learning into group or organizational change.
• In the Swedish agricultural sector, social learning pathways exist but are primarily limited to instrumental learning, such as technical and regulatory fixes, rather than reframing core issues.
• Indigenous knowledge transfer mechanisms in Canada and Sweden face conflicts with formal education, suggesting that governance transformation requires institutional change.

APA

Swartling, Å. G., Lundholm, C., Plummer, R., & Armitage, D. (2011). Social Learning and Sustainability: Exploring Critical Issues in Relation to Environmental Change and Governance. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Swartling-SocialLearningAndSustainability.pdf

Chicago

Swartling, Åsa Gerger, Cecilia Lundholm, Ryan Plummer, and Derek Armitage. Social Learning and Sustainability: Exploring Critical Issues in Relation to Environmental Change and Governance. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2011. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Swartling-SocialLearningAndSustainability.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Swartling |first1=Åsa Gerger |last2=Lundholm |first2=Cecilia |last3=Plummer |first3=Ryan |last4=Armitage |first4=Derek |title=Social Learning and Sustainability: Exploring Critical Issues in Relation to Environmental Change and Governance |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2011 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Swartling-SocialLearningAndSustainability.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{swartling2011social, author = {Swartling, Åsa Gerger and Lundholm, Cecilia and Plummer, Ryan and Armitage, Derek}, title = {{Social Learning and Sustainability: Exploring Critical Issues in Relation to Environmental Change and Governance}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2011}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Swartling-SocialLearningAndSustainability.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }