Fourteen propositions for resilience, fourteen years later

Abstract

In 2006, Walker et al. published an article titled, "A Handful of Heuristics and Some Propositions for Understanding Resilience in Social-ecological Systems." The article was incorporated into the Ecology and Society special feature, Exploring Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems. Walker et al. identified five heuristics and posed 14 propositions for understanding resilience in social-ecological systems. At the time, the authors hoped the paper would promote experimentation, critique, and application of these ideas in resilience and social-ecological systems research. To determine the extent to which these propositions have achieved the authors' hopes, we reviewed the scientific literature on socialecological systems since the article was published. Using Scopus, we identified 627 articles that cited the Walker et al. article. We then identified and assessed the articles relative to each proposition. In addition, we conducted a more general Scopus review for articles that did not cite the Walker et al. article specifically but incorporated a proposition's concepts. Overall, articles often cite Walker et al. as a reference for a definition of a heuristic or ecological resilience generally and not to reference a specific proposition. Nonetheless, every proposition was at least mentioned in the literature and used to advance resilience scholarship on social-ecological systems. Eleven propositions were tested by multiple articles through application of case studies or other research, and 7 of the 11 propositions were substantially discussed and advanced. Finally, three propositions were heavily critiqued either as concepts in resilience literature or in their application.

Governança dos recursos hídricos na Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Salitre-BA: análise sob a perspectiva do ciclo adaptativo

“…Também ajuda a projetar medidas de adaptação em nível local (Ling, 2022). Ciclos adaptativos referem-se a padrões sistemáticos de organização, colapso e reorganização (inovação, emergência) que SSEs específicos ou seus componentes podem sofrer (Holling, 1986;MathisonSlee et al, 2022).…”

“…Essa fase denominada de reorganização caracteriza-se pelo surgimento de janelas de oportunidade de renovação, reestruturação ou transformação do paradigma de governança. A intensidade da reorganização em um ciclo depende de diversos fatores, dentre os quais se pode citar, principalmente, os vínculos com outros sistemas em diferentes escalas (Holling & Gunderson, 2002;Allen & Holling, 2010;DeCaro et al, 2017;Sundstrom & Allen, 2019;MathisonSlee et al, 2022).…”

The Roles of Adaptive Water Governance in Enhancing the Transition towards Ecosystem-Based Adaptation

“…These theoretical insights about the complexity of social-ecological systems have given rise to the concept of resilience as a framework for enhancing sustainable human-environment interactions [80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90]. Based on the assumption of the existence of multiple equilibria, as opposed to a single equilibrium, resilience has been defined as the amount of disturbance a system can absorb before flipping from one stable equilibrium to another [91,92].…”

Price volatility in fish food systems: spatial arbitrage as an adaptive strategy for small-scale fish traders

“…Third, this study applies socialecological resilience theory to the social domain of the usipa social-ecological system. Social-ecological resilience literature suggests that the social domain and ecological domain of socialecological systems can be addressed by the same resilience theory, concepts, and framework (Walker et al 2006, MathisonSlee et al 2022. However, the majority of resilience literature to date focuses on the ecological domain, given that resilience originated as an ecological concept (Cretney 2014).…”