Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems : The Role of Learning and Education

Resilience thinking challenges us to reconsider the meaning of sustainability in a world that must constantly adapt in the face of gradual and at times catastrophic change. This volume further asks environmental education and resource management scholars to consider the relationship of environmental learning and behaviours to attributes of resilient social-ecological systems - attributes such as ecosystem services, innovative governance structures, biological and cultural diversity, and social capital. Similar to current approaches to environmental education and education for sustainable development, resilience scholarship integrates social and ecological perspectives.

The authors of Resilience in social-ecological systems: the role of learning and education present a wealth of perspectives, integrating theory with reviews of empirical studies in natural resource management, and in youth, adult, and higher education. The authors explore the role of education and learning in helping social-ecological systems as they respond to change, through adaptation and transformation. This book also serves to integrate a growing literature on resilience and social learning in natural resources management, with research in environmental education and education for sustainable development.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Environmental Education Research.

Marianne Krasny is Professor and Chair in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University, specializing in environmental, science, and sustainability education in urban and other settings in the US and internationally. She has worked on various approaches to environmental education including incorporating traditional knowledge, participatory action research, social learning, and socio-ecosystem resilience.

Cecilia Lundholm is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education, member of the group on Conceptual Development, Director of Centre for Teaching and Learning in the Social Sciences, and part of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, at Stockholm University. Her research concerns communication, knowledge and learning of socio-economic as well as ecological phenomena in formal (education) and informal (natural resource management) settings. Lundholm’s research is funded by the Swedish Research Council’s Committee for Sustainable Development and the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Ryan Plummer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Tourism and Environment at Brock University, Canada. He teaches courses on the subjects of environmental management, institutional arrangements and issues in environmental studies. At a broad level, his research concerns environmental governance and social-ecological systems.