If facing change, expanding our horizon, and dealing with complexity are all social learning challenges, we live in demanding times. In the context of rapid globalization and increasing interdependence, we face a threatened environment, economic precariousness and imbalances, the need for better education, ideological conflicts – to name a few of our challenges.

These challenges are neither simply personal nor abstractly global. They require accelerated learning at various levels of scale at once, from individuals, to communities, to organizations, to regions, to nations, to worldwide learning systems.

Learning capability – or the ability to learn – is a paradoxical aspiration because learning by itself does not guarantee learning capability. Sometimes being successful at learning is precisely what prevents you from learning the next thing. When applied to social systems, learning capability depends on the learning capability of individuals, but in the context of the structure of the system in which they live. Networking, convening new social learning spaces, brokering across boundaries, acting as learning citizens and social artists – these are the kinds of interventions that have the potential to increase social learning capability at a systemic level.

Taking such a systemic view is especially critical at a time when global challenges are placing unprecedented demands on our ability to learn together. Developing social learning capability across sectors may be urgent, but it is still an elusive aspiration. We need a social discipline of learning.

Making sense of social learning capability is the great challenge of learning theory in the 21st century. Learning how to enhance it, accelerate it, and evaluate it is the challenge of the practitioner. Both undertakings are interrelated – and contributing to both is our personal and professional aspiration.

We are not entirely sure how they do it, or even if there is a recipe for how it is done. But we know that what they do is important. Their work in key to the development of social learning capability at all levels, from small conversations and communities to large-scale social systems.

It is definitely an art form – expressed in many different ways – that can change the way we experience the world and ourselves.  One thing that social artists have in common is that they use their passion and commitment to guide the process and act as exemplary learning citizens. As with artists, they live what they do. Their identity is the wellspring of their ability to create social learning spaces. And as with artists, their contribution often goes unnoticed. We need a language for talking about their art and their contribution. The world will be a better place when their subtle form of leadership is recognized as the key for developing the array of social learning capabilities we urgently need today.

That’s what we mean by social learning spaces:

…social containers that enable genuine interactions among participants, who can bring to the learning table both their experience of practice and their experience of themselves in that practice.

Not all attempts to bring people together to learn create social learning spaces! They involve a social discipline of learning, a spirit of learning citizenship, and often the skills of a social artist.

Opening new social learning spaces, when they work well, is a key intervention for increasing the learning capability of a social system.

Participation in this project crystallized some initial thoughts on social learning capability, which are captured here. The topic is now becoming a major thrust of our work.

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Citation

Wenger, E. (2009) Social learning capability: four essays on innovation and learning in social systems. Social Innovation, Sociedade e Trabalho. Booklets 12 – separate supplement, MTSS/GEP & EQUAL Portugal, Lisbon.