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Chapter 10<br />

Global Environmental Change, Resilience,<br />

and Sustainable Outcomes<br />

Charles L. Redman<br />

Arizona State <strong>University</strong><br />

Chapter Abstracts<br />

Resilience <strong>of</strong> a system is <strong>of</strong>ten defined as the system’s ability to maintain its<br />

basic structure and essential functions in the face <strong>of</strong> a stress or a shock. In many<br />

ways a socio-ecological system’s response to the occurrence <strong>of</strong> a natural hazard<br />

is an excellent, although <strong>of</strong>ten extreme, case study <strong>of</strong> resilience. In examining<br />

these ecodynamics, we must differentiate between what we expect to be appropriate<br />

behavior based on our own implicitly justified normative views and<br />

what we actually observe in the past to be a sustainable situation. Many basic<br />

principles advocated in ecological versions <strong>of</strong> resilience theory—such as the<br />

value <strong>of</strong> redundancy, flexibility, stored capital, investment in mitigation, and<br />

maximum information flow—may in fact conflict with sustainable outcomes<br />

when applied to human-dominated systems. Moreover, a resilience approach<br />

is <strong>of</strong>ten predicated on the assumption that current conditions (natural in particular)<br />

are optimal and that change equates with degradation <strong>of</strong> the system<br />

and hence is negative. However, as we know from social systems, current conditions<br />

may not be desirable and may have feedbacks that strongly resist change<br />

(e.g., the poverty trap). Implementing a sustainability approach requires that<br />

we not only promote a system’s adaptive capacity but also that we evaluate the<br />

desirability <strong>of</strong> the system as it now operates and develop measurable indicators<br />

that encode desirable, normatively held values. These indicators would include<br />

aspects <strong>of</strong> the biophysical functioning <strong>of</strong> the ecosystem but also equity and<br />

access to opportunities in the social system and how the two interact and ramify.<br />

In fact, most practitioners <strong>of</strong> sustainability find that the systems they study<br />

are not only less than optimal but also do not even meet minimal standards<br />

<strong>of</strong> sustainability. All <strong>of</strong> this becomes more complex in the face <strong>of</strong> potential,<br />

systems-transforming natural hazards.<br />

xxi

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