Fostering of social learning is generally considered an important governance instrument to build resilience in social–ecological systems. Empirical studies addressing the contribution of social learning to resilience are scarce however, and do not provide direct evidence but infer this contribution from the impacts of social learning on system governance and management. These impacts are found more frequently at the local level than at higher, regional or national levels, probably depending on the overlap between participants in social learning and actors in governance and management. Recent studies have shown that at higher levels a connection between social learning and policy can be achieved through bridging actors or organizations, and vertical linkages between governance levels. Conceptually and methodologically the study of social learning and its relation with resilience has advanced sufficiently to enable more rigorous and detailed empirical research. This should focus on how attempts to foster social learning within social–ecological governance systems can be made more effective and efficient, for example, through the use of new technologies to support the learning process or through the creation of permanent, informal multi-stakeholder learning spaces within formal policy structures.

社会学习的培养通常被认为是在社会生态系统中建立抵御力的重要治理工具。然而，关于社会学习对弹性的贡献的实证研究很少，并且没有提供直接的证据，而是从社会学习对系统治理和管理的影响中推断出了这一贡献。这些影响在地方一级比在较高的地区或国家一级更常见，这可能取决于社会学习参与者与治理和管理参与者之间的重叠。最近的研究表明，在更高层次上，可以通过桥接参与者或组织以及治理水平之间的垂直联系来实现社会学习与政策之间的联系。从概念和方法上讲，社会学习及其与弹性的关系的研究已经足够先进，可以进行更严格和详细的实证研究。这应该侧重于如何使社会生态治理体系内的社会学习尝试更加有效和有效，例如，通过使用新技术来支持学习过程，或者通过建立永久的，非正式的多利益相关方学习正式政策结构中的空间。