Of models and meanings: cultural resilience in socio-ecological systems

Modeling has emerged as a key technology in analysis of socio-ecological systems. However, the tendency for modeling to focus on the mechanistic materiality of biophysical systems obscures the diversity of performative social behaviors and normative cultural positions of actors within the modeled system. The fact that changes in the biophysical system can be culturally constructed in different ways means that the perception and pursuit of adaptive pathways can be highly variable. Furthermore, the adoption of biophysically resilient livelihoods can occur under conditions which are subjectively experienced as the radical transformation of cultural systems. The objectives of this paper are to 1. highlight the importance of understanding the place of culture within socio-ecological systems, 2. explore the tensions between empirical and normative positions in the analysis of socio-ecological resilience and 3. suggest how empirical modeling of socio-ecological systems can synergistically interact with normative aspects of livelihoods and lifeways.