Reconceptualizing Environmental Challenges Is Resilience the New Narrative?

Abstract

We need to reexamine both our thinking about and our relationship to environmental and natural resource challenges. This includes facing the emerging realities of the Anthropocene: unprecedented and irreversible rates of biodiversity loss, exponential increases in per-capita resource consumption, and global climate change. Combined, these and other factors are increasing the likelihood of rapid, non-linear, social and ecological regime changes. New policy directions and orientations are needed to provide the necessary capacity to deal with challenges in a meaningful and equitable ways. This article posits that the concept of “resilience” is emerging as a new narrative in both scholarly literature and policy discussions that has potential in this regard. After first situating resilience thinking within current and historical narratives regarding social-ecological relations, it examines the potential for resilience to shift the environmental governance paradigm in helpful ways.