The real value of resilience thinking is that it gives us a way to engage with this complexity. Systems are made up of many interacting parts, and the systems in which humans are most interested (families, communities, cities, catchments, regions and nations, etc.) are self-organizing systems. It requires the ability to-in one way or another-describe the identity of the system, how that identity might be changing over time, and what threatens that identity. To understand, assess, and manage resilience requires a capacity to engage with the system. The important point is that resilience thinking is a form of systems thinking. There is no single measurement or number that captures resilience rather, it is underpinned by a suite of attributes. Resilience scientists define resilience as the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, and feedbacks that is, it is to have the same “identity.” Put simply, resilience is the ability to cope with shocks and keep functioning in much the same kind of way as before. In such a time, resilience science provides important insights to help communities engage with the complex set of challenges they need to navigate. The past no longer provides us with a guide to how the future will behave, and we search for solutions while moving into an increasingly uncertain space. As the human population grows, the variety of life declines, ice caps shrink, and our Earth system behaves in ways its species have never experienced. This post is based on a chapter from Post Carbon Institute’s 2016 book The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval.
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