The Rocky Road to Resilience

There is now a significant body of research devoted to managing complex social and ecological systems with a focus on resilience, where resilience is defined as: ‘the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks’ (Walker et al. 2004). Managing natural resources with a focus on enhancing system resilience is seen by resilience researchers and practitioners as a more sustainable approach than the dominant paradigm of optimising production via methods such as maximum sustainable yield. For those interested in a resilience approach to managing linked social–ecological systems (SESs), this book provides a readable and well-referenced blend of the latest resilience ideas and practical approaches. Readers may initially find it a little disappointing that the chapters in the book were first published in 2006 as papers in Ecology and Society, the online journal of the Resilience Alliance, an international consortium of 15 research groups. However, the importance of gathering this particular group of papers into a book quickly becomes apparent as they highlight the key issues of importance to managers and researchers in this exciting and important, developing field. Exploring resilience in social-ecological systems focuses more on the social aspects of SESs than earlier books by the Resilience Network, such as Panarchy (Gunderson & Holling 2002), which was more focused on theory development and left the reader with many questions about the practical aspects of managing and analysing SESs with a resilience focus. This book goes some way to answering these questions, looking at how humans act in these systems, how they react to system changes and what human attitudes and behaviour seem to be important for resilience-based management – a welcome development from earlier work The book presents a list of ‘propositions’ or statements about change in SESs, which represent the current stage of theory development in this field; the authors point out that these propositions need to be tested and developed, listing research questions raised by each one. Fifteen SES case studies from around the world are also presented, all of which have been researched by the Resilience Alliance. Different chapters compare different case studies, focusing on particular features of SESs that appear to play important roles in their dynamics, and linking the findings to relevant propositions. In this way the propositions are tested by comparative analysis of case studies, which is considered the best approach for theory development in complex SESs. After the introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 briefly summarises the main ideas on which the resilience approach is based (e.g. resilience and the adaptive cycle) and then outlines the 14 propositions. For example, Proposition 4 explains how only a small set of variables determine critical changes in SESs and Proposition 10 discusses learning as a key component of adaptability. For readers who are familiar with many of these concepts this chapter provides a succinct summary; however, newcomers to the field may struggle with some of the ideas, which, given that they represent a significant shift in thinking from the dominant paradigm, should maybe have been presented in more detail. Chapters 3–9 are based on the 15 case studies, comparing and probing them and presenting emergent insights. For example Chapter 6 explores the differences between social–ecological systems that have renewed themselves after collapse and those that haven’t, while Chapter 8 examines governance attributes that seem to assist resilience management in regional social– ecological systems. The findings from Chapters 3–9 are then summarised in Chapter 10, which concludes with a set of 10 ‘tentative messages’ for policy and management resulting from the overall findings. The way each chapter weaves together the propositions and case studies, creating an eclectic mix of theoretical ideas and practical guidelines, is one of the strengths of this book, making it appeal to both managers and researchers. However, Exploring resilience in social–ecological systems will be of particular value to researchers interested in this field and for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in resource management and sustainability.