scholarly journals From nouns to verbs: How process ontologies enhance our understanding of social‐ecological systems understood as complex adaptive systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilman Hertz ◽  
Maria Mancilla Garcia ◽  
Maja Schlüter
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Complex Adaptive

The Role of Evolutionary Studies in Education for Sustainable Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin Eirdosh ◽  
Susan Hanisch
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Complex Adaptive

Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) examines the emergence and persistence of complex adaptive systems, including human social-ecological systems. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims to empower students with the skills to develop and sustain human social-ecological systems that reflect the shared values of our species. The aims of EvoS and ESD have clear overlaps, and yet these two fields remain as distant islands of thought with few academic bridges between them. This chapter explores the connections between EvoS and ESD from historical, theoretical, and applied perspectives and presents the value of an integrated approach. The authors argue the strengths of this approach include its cumulative evidence base from wide-ranging disciplines, its explanatory power, and its overall simplicity.

Social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems: modeling and policy implications

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Levin ◽  
Tasos Xepapadeas ◽  
Anne-Sophie Crépin ◽  
Jon Norberg ◽  
Aart de Zeeuw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Strategic Interactions ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems Modeling

AbstractSystems linking people and nature, known as social-ecological systems, are increasingly understood as complex adaptive systems. Essential features of these complex adaptive systems – such as nonlinear feedbacks, strategic interactions, individual and spatial heterogeneity, and varying time scales – pose substantial challenges for modeling. However, ignoring these characteristics can distort our picture of how these systems work, causing policies to be less effective or even counterproductive. In this paper we present recent developments in modeling social-ecological systems, illustrate some of these challenges with examples related to coral reefs and grasslands, and identify the implications for economic and policy analysis.

scholarly journals Multisystemic Resilience

2021 ◽  
pp. 771-784
Author(s):  
Katrina Brown
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Complex Adaptive

This chapter examines the extent to which cross-disciplinary understandings of resilience support the development and application of multisystemic resilience approaches based on evidence in current literature. It focuses on how systems thinking—especially complex adaptive systems—has informed the evolution of social-ecological systems resilience analysis and the extent to which this provides an example of multisystemic resilience. It reviews some of the underlying concepts and principles in the field and the boundary-pushing areas of recent research. Finally, it identifies how systemic resilience analysis can make a difference in understanding key global challenges and suggests ways forward for development of a multisystemic resilience field.

scholarly journals Multiple social network influences can generate unexpected environmental outcomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Yletyinen ◽  
G. L. W. Perry ◽  
P. Stahlmann-Brown ◽  
R. Pech ◽  
J. M. Tylianakis
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Social Influences ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Environmental Interventions ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Private Land Conservation ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Complex Adaptive

AbstractUnderstanding the function of social networks can make a critical contribution to achieving desirable environmental outcomes. Social-ecological systems are complex, adaptive systems in which environmental decision makers adapt to a changing social and ecological context. However, it remains unclear how multiple social influences interact with environmental feedbacks to generate environmental outcomes. Based on national-scale survey data and a social-ecological agent-based model in the context of voluntary private land conservation, our results suggest that social influences can operate synergistically or antagonistically, thereby enabling behaviors to spread by two or more mechanisms that amplify each other’s effects. Furthermore, information through social networks may indirectly affect and respond to isolated individuals through environmental change. The interplay of social influences can, therefore, explain the success or failure of conservation outcomes emerging from collective behavior. To understand the capacity of social influence to generate environmental outcomes, social networks must not be seen as ‘closed systems’; rather, the outcomes of environmental interventions depend on feedbacks between the environment and different components of the social system.

scholarly journals Social Ecological Dynamics of Catchment Resilience

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
W. Neil Adger ◽  
Katrina Brown ◽  
Catherine Butler ◽  
Tara Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Ecological Dynamics ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Social Ecological

Catchment resilience is the capacity of a combined social ecological system, comprised of water, land, ecological resources and communities in a river basin, to deal with sudden shocks and gradual changes, and to adapt and self-organize for progressive change and transform itself for sustainability. This paper proposes that analysis of catchments as social ecological systems can provide key insights into how social and ecological dynamics interact and how some of the negative consequences of unsustainable resource use or environmental degradation can be ameliorated. This requires recognition of the potential for community resilience as a core element of catchment resilience, and moves beyond more structural approaches to emphasize social dynamics. The proposals are based on a review of social ecological systems research, on methods for analyzing community resilience, and a review of social science and action research that suggest ways of generating resilience through community engagement. These methods and approaches maximize insights into the social dynamics of catchments as complex adaptive systems to inform science and practice.

scholarly journals How to Repurpose the University: A Resilience Lens on Sustainability Governance

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe P. Robinson ◽  
Rebecca Laycock Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
University Governance ◽  
Managing Diversity ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Sustainability Governance ◽  
Slow Variables ◽  
The University

Universities have an important role in moving society towards a more sustainable future. However, this will require us to repurpose universities, reorienting and refocusing the different university domains (education, research, campus, and outreach) towards sustainability. The governance structures and processes used to embed sustainability into the activities and operations of the institution are critical to achieving the required transformation. Our current university systems which are seen as contributing to socio-ecological system unsustainability are resilient to change due to slow variables such as organisational and sector-wide prevailing paradigms and culture. Therefore, to repurpose a university requires us to destabilise our prevailing system, crossing a threshold into a new stable system of a ‘sustainable university' across all its domains. This paper utilises an adaptation of Biggs et al. (2012) resilience principles for the governance of social-ecological systems to provide a framework to consider aspects of university governance for sustainability that can be utilised to repurpose universities towards sustainability, and destabilize unsustainable elements of the system. This paper draws out examples relating to sustainability governance within universities with regards to the four principles of (i) managing diversity and redundancy, (ii) managing connectivity, (iii) managing slow variables and feedbacks, and (iv) encouraging learning and experimentation within the context of complex adaptive systems. In this article, we have shown that using resilience in a non-normative way is possible (to decrease resilience of an unsustainable system), and that it can also be valuable to help understand how to shift organisational governance towards a particular end-state (in this case, university governance that advances sustainability). This paper provides an example of how to operationalise resilience principles of relevance to the resilience literature as well as providing a practical framework to guide higher education institution governance for sustainability.

Resilience

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Folke
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Dynamics ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Resilience Thinking ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Individual

Resilience thinking in relation to the environment has emerged as a lens of inquiry that serves a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. Resilience is about cultivating the capacity to sustain development in the face of expected and surprising change and diverse pathways of development and potential thresholds between them. The evolution of resilience thinking is coupled to social-ecological systems and a truly intertwined human-environment planet. Resilience as persistence, adaptability and, transformability of complex adaptive social-ecological systems is the focus, clarifying the dynamic and forward-looking nature of the concept. Resilience thinking emphasizes that social-ecological systems, from the individual, to community, to society as a whole, are embedded in the biosphere. The biosphere connection is an essential observation if sustainability is to be taken seriously. In the continuous advancement of resilience thinking there are efforts aimed at capturing resilience of social-ecological systems and finding ways for people and institutions to govern social-ecological dynamics for improved human well-being, at the local, across levels and scales, to the global. Consequently, in resilience thinking, development issues for human well-being, for people and planet, are framed in a context of understanding and governing complex social-ecological dynamics for sustainability as part of a dynamic biosphere.

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