Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T05:06:44.061Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: Resilience and sustainability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2001

Abstract

One of the most interesting and potentially useful outcomes of recent collaboration between natural and social scientists concerned with the sustainability of jointly determined ecological-economic systems is the application of the ecological concept of resilience. In its broadest sense, resilience is a measure of the ability of a system to withstand stresses and shocks – its ability to persist in an uncertain world. For many policy-makers, however, the concern that desirable states or processes may not be ‘sustainable’ is balanced by the concern that individuals and societies may get ‘locked-in’ to undesirable states or processes. Many low-income countries, for example, are thought to have been caught in poverty traps, and poverty traps have since been seen as a major cause of environmental degradation (Dasgupta, 1993). Other examples of ‘lock-in’ include our dependence on hydrocarbon-based technologies, or the institutional and cultural rigidities that stand in the way of change (Hanna, Folke, and Mäler, 1996). Such states or processes are too persistent.

Type
Policy Forum
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)