Resilience’ is defined as the ability of a system to absorb disturbances before unpredictably changing its structure from one equilibrium state to another, less desirable one.

Linking Social and Ecological Systems: Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience

Intimately connected with the notion of resilience is the idea of ‘adaptive management’, founded on the explicit belief that ‘organizations and institutions can ‘‘learn’’ as individuals do’. The first major international conference on resilience, was hosted in April 2008 by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (recipient of the largest single research grant ever awarded environmental research in Sweden). It chose to illustrate its commitment to dialogue between science and the humanities by encouraging the participants to view an art exhibit.

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