Towards a bridging concept for undesirable resilience in social-ecological systems

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • André Z. Dornelles
  • Emily Boyd
  • Richard J. Nunes
  • Mike Asquith
  • Wiebren J. Boonstra
  • Izabela Delabre
  • J. Michael Denney
  • Volker Grimm
  • Anke Jentsch
  • Kimberly A. Nicholas
  • Matthias Schröter
  • Ralf Seppelt
  • Josef Settele
  • Nancy Shackelford
  • Rachel J. Standish
  • Genesis Tambang Yengoh
  • Tom H. Oliver

Non-technical summary Resilience is a cross-disciplinary concept that is relevant for understanding the sustainability of the social and environmental conditions in which we live. Most research normatively focuses on building or strengthening resilience, despite growing recognition of the importance of breaking the resilience of, and thus transforming, unsustainable social-ecological systems. Undesirable resilience (cf. lock-ins, social-ecological traps), however, is not only less explored in the academic literature, but its understanding is also more fragmented across different disciplines. This disparity can inhibit collaboration among researchers exploring interdependent challenges in sustainability sciences. In this article, we propose that the term lock-in may contribute to a common understanding of undesirable resilience across scientific fields. Technical summary Resilience is an extendable concept that bridges the social and life sciences. Studies increasingly interpret resilience normatively as a desirable property of social-ecological systems, despite growing awareness of resilient properties leading to social and ecological degradation, vulnerability or barriers that hinder sustainability transformations (i.e., ‘undesirable’ resilience). This is the first study to qualify, quantify and compare the conceptualization of ‘desirable’ and ‘undesirable’ resilience across academic disciplines. Our literature analysis found that various synonyms are used to denote undesirable resilience (e.g., path dependency, social-ecological traps, institutional inertia). Compared to resilience as a desirable property, research on undesirable resilience is substantially less frequent and scattered across distinct scientific fields. Amongst synonyms for undesirable resilience, the term lock-in is more frequently and evenly used across academic disciplines. We propose that lock-in therefore has the potential to reconcile diverse interpretations of the mechanisms that constrain system transformation – explicitly and coherently addressing characteristics of reversibility and plausibility – and thus enabling integrative understanding of social-ecological system dynamics. Social media summary ‘Lock-in’ as a bridging concept for interdisciplinary understanding of barriers to desirable sustainability transitions.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere20
JournalGlobal Sustainability
Volume3
Number of pages12
ISSN2059-4798
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2020
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Lock-in, Regime shifts, Sustainable development, Tipping points, Transformations
  • Ecosystems Research

DOI

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