Resilience of past landscapes: Resilience theory, society, and the Longue Durée

By Charles Redman, Ann Kinzig. 2003

378 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Resilience theory is an expanding body of ideas that attempts to provide explanations for the source and role of change in adaptive systems, particularly the kinds of change that are transforming. Scholars from various disciplines have contributed to the current state of this formulation. This article proposes that resilience theory would benefit from an increasing collaboration with archaeologists, who would provide a long-term perspective on adaptive cycles. Although archaeologists and anthropologists have written provocatively about studying the resilience of past and present societies, such an approach has not become common in these disciplines. We suggest, however, that a resilience framework offers a potential mechanism for reinvigorating the conceptual base of archaeological and anthropological disciplines. To make this case, we (1) highlight three features of resilience theory, including cross-scale interactions, information flow, and phases of the adaptive cycle; (2) examine the extent to which purely natural or social science analyses would give complementary or contradictory conclusions; and (3) discuss the implications of using a long-term integrative perspective for understanding linked social and ecological systems.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Global and Planetary Change, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3aa491cdbbd3f39da93f9aedee58f34361ee0679

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Citations in the corpus

The repeated replacement model – Rapid climate change and population dynamics in Late Pleistocene Europe (2012, background): “The different phases of the adaptive cycle may run on different time scales: whereas the phases r and K may last for some long time periods, crises and reorganization represent extremely rapid processes (Redman and Kinzig, 2003).”
An introduction to molecular ecology (2004, background): “I anticipate that future research will demonstrate the strong relations between the multiple-use strategies created as cultural reactions to the biological diversity of tropical landscapes, the concept of resilience, and the paths to a sustainable society (Holling 2001, Redman and Kinzig 2003).”
Ecological Thresholds: The Key to Successful Environmental Management or an Important Concept with No Practical Application? (2006, background): “Once general principles have been developed, adaptive management pilot studies may prove useful in providing relevant feedback to scientists and environmental managers regarding uses and limitations of these principles.”
Matching knowledge brokering strategies to environmental policy problems and settings (2009, methodology): “This adaptive cycle metaphor can be used as a basis for analyzing specific ecosystem trajectories (Redman and Kinzig, 2003).”
Organizational resilience: A conceptual integrative framework (2012, background): “Resilience is seen as the capacity to be flexible which ensures continuity and recovery after stress (Redman & Kinzig, 2003).”
Guest Editorial, part of a Special Feature on Exploring Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems Exploring Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems Through Comparative Studies and Theory Development: Introduction to the Special Issue (2006, background): “Unfortunately, these classical scientific approaches work best under highly reduced and controlled conditions.”
Insight, part of a Special Feature on Managing Surprises in Complex Systems Ecological and Human Community Resilience in Response to Natural Disasters (2010, background): “One of the differences between ecological and community systems is that humandominated systems contain members that can conceptualize and look forward to the future (Westley et al. 2002, Scheffer et al. 2003, Redman and Kinzig 2003), whereas ecological systems do not have this ability.”
Zoonosis emergence linked to agricultural intensification and environmental change (2013, neutral): “The intensity of the interface between wildlife, humans, and domestic animal species has never been static, and all biological systems have an inherent capacity for both resilience and adaptation (67), but the current pace of anthropogenic change could be too fast to allow system adaptation and over”
Should sustainability and resilience be combined or remain distinct pursuits (2014, background): “I have been a member of the Resilience Alliance for more than 12 years and have advocated that framework often (Redman and Kinzig 2003, Redman 2005).”
Resilience and Regime Shifts: Assessing Cascading Effects (2006, background): “Redman and Kinzig (2003), however, speculate that the opposite may occur in social systems: larger levels of social organization may change rapidly, with lower levels demonstrating greater longevity; this leaves open the possibility that changes in the position of the thresholds are being…”
Exploring Strategies that Build Livelihood Resilience: a Case from Cambodia (2006, background): “A more resilient system implies more flexibility, but resilient systems are also defined as those able to maintain their integrity and reorganize while undergoing change (Holling 1973, Redman and Kinzig 2003, Walker et al. 2004).”
RESILIENCE: THE EMERGENCE OF A PERSPECTIVE FOR SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ANALYSES (2006, background): “, 2005) and periods of changing and stable relationships between human groups, land degradation and their environments in an archaeological context (van der Leeuw, 2000; Redman and Kinzig, 2003; Delcourt and Delcourt, 2004; Redman, 2005).”
Robustness Trade-offs in Social-Ecological Systems (2007, background): “…et al. 2004; Anderies 2005; Anderies et al. 2006; Folke 2006; Gunderson et al. 1995; Berkes and Folke 1998; Berkes et al. 2003; Gunderson and Holling 2002) as well as more general issues including understanding long-term change in human societies (Redman and Kinzig 2003; Janssen et al. 2003).”