To make it clear, this invited article is a reproduction of the article “Resilience” published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science (Folke 2016). My coeditor-in-Chief Lance Gunderson argued for Ecology and Society as the natural venue, because resilience is one of the core concepts of the journal and persuasively encouraged me to proceed. They were very positive about having selected articles of the Oxford Research Encyclopedias, like this one, reprinted in scientific journals. I turned to Oxford University Press and asked about their views. Several colleagues strongly recommended that it would be very valuable to have the Encyclopedia article also appearing as a journal article in open-access format offering the work to a broader readership.
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After submission to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, the contribution was shared with colleagues for comments and reflections. The work with the article provided a welcoming opportunity to reflect on the state-of-the-art of resilience thinking 10 years after the review that Elinor Ostrom and Marco Janssen invited me to write for Global Environmental Change (Folke 2006). I was invited to contribute an article on this vibrant research field for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Resilience has become part of practice, policy, and business, ranging from poverty alleviation to political frameworks and business strategies to anticipate and respond to change and crisis, not only to survive, but also to evolve. Resilience is a concept and lens found in many academic fields and disciplines. A search on resilience and the environment at Google Scholar presents over one million hits (February 2016).
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The annual citations have jumped from less than 100 in year 1995 to more than 20,000 citations in 2015 (ISI Web of Science December 2015). The number of scientific publications on resilience in relation to the environment has during this period increased from some 250 to well over 6000 publications. The last fifteen years have seen an explosion of resilience research. Key words: development resilience social-ecological sustainability transformation INTRODUCTION “Resilience” of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science ( ) This invited article is a republication of Folke, C.
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Consequently, in resilience thinking, development issues for human well-being, for people and planet, are framed in a context of understanding and governing complex social-ecological dynamics for sustainability as part of a dynamic biosphere. In the continuous advancement of resilience thinking there are efforts aimed at capturing resilience of social-ecological systems and finding ways for people and institutions to govern social-ecological dynamics for improved human well-being, at the local, across levels and scales, to the global. The biosphere connection is an essential observation if sustainability is to be taken seriously. Resilience thinking emphasizes that social-ecological systems, from the individual, to community, to society as a whole, are embedded in the biosphere. Resilience as persistence, adaptability, and transformability of complex adaptive social-ecological systems is the focus, clarifying the dynamic and forward-looking nature of the concept.
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The evolution of resilience thinking is coupled to social-ecological systems and a truly intertwined human-environment planet. Resilience is about cultivating the capacity to sustain development in the face of expected and surprising change and diverse pathways of development and potential thresholds between them. Resilience thinking in relation to the environment has emerged as a lens of inquiry that serves a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.