Enhancing the Resilience of Human–Environment Systems: a Social Ecological Perspective

Resilience studies build on the notion that phenomena in the real world should be understood as dynamic social ecological systems. However, the scholarly community may not be fully aware that Social Ecology, as a conceptual framework, has a long intellectual history, nor fully cognizant of its foundational theory. In the article, the authors trace the intellectual roots and core principles of Social Ecology and demonstrate how these principles enable a broader conceptualization of resilience. We then illustrate how the resulting notion of resilience as transactional process and multi-capital formation affords new perspectives on diverse phenomena such as global financial crises and. adaptation to resource strains in marine and agricultural ecosystem. A social ecological analysis of resilience enables the study of people-environment transactions across varying dimensions, time periods, and scales. Furthermore, in its openness to experiential knowledge and action-research, the Social Ecology framework coheres well with participative-collaborative modes of inquiry which traverse institutional, epistemological, and scale-related boundaries.