The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Anne Jerneck

Anne Jerneck

Professor, Docent

Anne Jerneck

Why resilience is unappealing to social science : Theoretical and empirical investigations of the scientific use of resilience

Author

  • Lennart Olsson
  • Anne Jerneck
  • Henrik Thorén
  • Johannes Persson
  • David O Byrne

Summary, in English

Resilience is often promoted as a boundary concept to integrate the social and natural dimensions of sustainability. However, it is a troubled dialogue from which social scientists may feel detached. To explain this, we first scrutinize the meanings, attributes, and uses of resilience in ecology and elsewhere to construct a typology of definitions. Second, we analyze core concepts and principles in resilience theory that cause disciplinary tensions between the social and natural sciences (system ontology, system boundary, equilibria and thresholds, feedback mechanisms, self-organization, and function). Third, we provide empirical evidence of the asymmetry in the use of resilience theory in ecology and environmental sciences compared to five relevant social science disciplines. Fourth, we contrast the unification ambition in resilience theory with methodological pluralism. Throughout, we develop the argument that incommensurability and unification constrain the interdisciplinary dialogue, whereas pluralism drawing on core social scientific concepts would better facilitate integrated sustainability research.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • Theoretical Philosophy

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Publication/Series

Science Advances

Volume

1

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
  • Philosophy

Status

Published

Project

  • LUCID - Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability

Research group

  • LUCID - Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2375-2548