Why resilience is unappealing to social science: Theoretical and empirical investigations of the scientific use of resilience

Resilience is often promoted as a boundary concept to integrate the social and natural dimensions of sustainability. However, it is a troubled dialogue from which social scientists may feel detached. To explain this, we first scrutinize the meanings, attributes, and uses of resilience in ecology and elsewhere to construct a typology of definitions. Second, we analyze core concepts and principles in resilience theory that cause disciplinary tensions between the social and natural sciences (system ontology, system boundary, equilibria and thresholds, feedback mechanisms, self-organization, and function). Third, we provide empirical evidence of the asymmetry in the use of resilience theory in ecology and…

• RF
  Rockefeller Foundation

  Awards: ID0E14AG1138, 2012 RLC 304
• SF
  Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas

  Awards: 259-2008-1718, ID0EJ4AG1137