Symposium: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems

On September 16 and 17, researchers and practitioners working on resilience, tipping points, vulnerability, ecosystem services, bioeconomy, environmental conflict, and migration came together online to discuss the opportunities and challenges of social-ecological research. The symposium took place in the framework of the PRODIGY project and was co-hosted by the Peace Academy. We are pleased that some international guests were also present.

The aim of this symposium was to contribute to the understanding of how different actors, social networks, policies, and their implementation promote or hinder resilience in social-ecological systems (SES). The interdisciplinary debate on approaches to SES research aimed to operationalize SES concepts and assess resilience in concrete practical examples across a wide variety of contexts and spatial and temporal scales. Recognizing that the ongoing scholarly debate on SES and resilience is multifaceted, the discussion was organized around three thematic foci: from a conceptual perspective, from a bioeconomy perspective, and from the perspective of crises as a challenge to SES. A session on postcolonial contestation of Western concepts related to human-nature relations and views on resilience and vulnerability complemented the rich program.