Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management
Resilience thinking appears to offer a holistic approach that can be used by social researchers to interpret past and contemporary conditions and identify possible futures for social-ecological systems (SES). Resilience thinking is shaping contemporary environmental policy and its implementation in...
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Resilience Alliance
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doaj-008944e9795e49d9b1d7d4bf23c950412020-11-24T22:45:51ZengResilience AllianceEcology and Society1708-30872017-12-012242110.5751/ES-09705-2204219705Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource managementKatrina Sinclair0Andrea Rawluk1Saideepa Kumar2Allan Curtis3NSW Department of Primary IndustriesSchool of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of MelbourneSchool of Environmental Sciences, Charles Sturt UniversityGraham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, AustraliaResilience thinking appears to offer a holistic approach that can be used by social researchers to interpret past and contemporary conditions and identify possible futures for social-ecological systems (SES). Resilience thinking is shaping contemporary environmental policy and its implementation in Australia, Europe, and North America. At the same time, social researchers have raised concerns about the limitations of resilience thinking, particularly in its handling of human agency, power relationships, social thresholds, and the social construction of SES definitions. We argue for a reflexive turn in resilience thinking as a way to address these concerns. We draw on lessons from three Australian case studies where a reflexive application of resilience thinking generated insights for research and practice. We propose six areas for reflexive inquiry: (1) focal scale and level, (2) SES definition, (3) narratives of change, (4) processes of knowledge production, (5) social transition trajectories, and ( 6) social thresholds. In so doing, the assumptions of resilience thinking are politicized and problematized, which improves its theoretical analytical utility, and in practice generates new insights into social processes. Reflexivity offers opportunity for greater cross-disciplinary dialogue between resilience thinking and the social sciences, while allowing methodologies with differing ontologies and epistemologies to be applied in a complementary manner.http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss4/art21/agriculturelimitationsnatural resource managementreflexivityresilience frameworksocial-ecological systems |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Katrina Sinclair Andrea Rawluk Saideepa Kumar Allan Curtis |
spellingShingle |
Katrina Sinclair Andrea Rawluk Saideepa Kumar Allan Curtis Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management Ecology and Society agriculture limitations natural resource management reflexivity resilience framework social-ecological systems |
author_facet |
Katrina Sinclair Andrea Rawluk Saideepa Kumar Allan Curtis |
author_sort |
Katrina Sinclair |
title |
Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management |
title_short |
Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management |
title_full |
Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management |
title_fullStr |
Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management |
title_sort |
ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management |
publisher |
Resilience Alliance |
series |
Ecology and Society |
issn |
1708-3087 |
publishDate |
2017-12-01 |
description |
Resilience thinking appears to offer a holistic approach that can be used by social researchers to interpret past and contemporary conditions and identify possible futures for social-ecological systems (SES). Resilience thinking is shaping contemporary environmental policy and its implementation in Australia, Europe, and North America. At the same time, social researchers have raised concerns about the limitations of resilience thinking, particularly in its handling of human agency, power relationships, social thresholds, and the social construction of SES definitions. We argue for a reflexive turn in resilience thinking as a way to address these concerns. We draw on lessons from three Australian case studies where a reflexive application of resilience thinking generated insights for research and practice. We propose six areas for reflexive inquiry: (1) focal scale and level, (2) SES definition, (3) narratives of change, (4) processes of knowledge production, (5) social transition trajectories, and ( 6) social thresholds. In so doing, the assumptions of resilience thinking are politicized and problematized, which improves its theoretical analytical utility, and in practice generates new insights into social processes. Reflexivity offers opportunity for greater cross-disciplinary dialogue between resilience thinking and the social sciences, while allowing methodologies with differing ontologies and epistemologies to be applied in a complementary manner. |
topic |
agriculture limitations natural resource management reflexivity resilience framework social-ecological systems |
url |
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss4/art21/ |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT katrinasinclair waysforwardforresiliencethinkinglessonsfromthefieldforthoseexploringsocialecologicalsystemsinagricultureandnaturalresourcemanagement AT andrearawluk waysforwardforresiliencethinkinglessonsfromthefieldforthoseexploringsocialecologicalsystemsinagricultureandnaturalresourcemanagement AT saideepakumar waysforwardforresiliencethinkinglessonsfromthefieldforthoseexploringsocialecologicalsystemsinagricultureandnaturalresourcemanagement AT allancurtis waysforwardforresiliencethinkinglessonsfromthefieldforthoseexploringsocialecologicalsystemsinagricultureandnaturalresourcemanagement |
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