Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 8.1 Positive perceptions of resilience in the context of future climate
change among residents of the Orkney Islands
'Generally people here don't see weather or the movement of the sea as a
problem. It is something to accommodate, accept and work around'.
'Orkney may need to become more self-suffi cient in many food products to
reduce dependence on the importation of stocks'.
'Orcadians should think ahead to alleviate prospective problems and need to
start planning now'.
Source: Brown et al. (2005) based on fi eld notes taken in 2004-5.
stimuli and an apparently adaptive approach; and anticipatory as well as reactionary
responses.
These examples show that processes of decision making and perception are
important in determining both individual and collective vulnerability and resilience.
Indeed, social psychologists have long made a link between perceived vulnerability
and marginalisation and the actual ability to take positive adaptive action (Satter-
fi eld et al., 2004). In general, we can say that resilient communities are promoted
through integrating features of social organisation such as trust, norms and net-
works. These cultural contexts and local knowledge tend to be overlooked in many
policy interventions that focus simply on economic effi ciency of sustainable use of
natural resources. The emphasis in this section on communities and social interac-
tion may, at fi rst glance, appear diffi cult to reconcile with the systems-based analysis
of resilience in the ecological literature (Nelson et al., 2007). But they are indeed
compatible. A systems approach to communities does not simply focus on the eco-
nomic relations between agents, but is fundamentally concerned with factors such
as inclusivity, degrees of trust and the mental models that individuals hold of the
world and the decisions they face.
Vulnerability and Resilience Across Scales
These examples about the nature of resilience in particular places also show the
multiple scales of analysis required to understand resilience and vulnerability. Often
external forces, such as international development assistance, risks of climate change,
or the vagaries of world commodity markets, are as important as local-scale responses
to change. Vulnerability and resilience are not static phenomena: they can be accel-
erated and amplifi ed by processes of global, as well as local, change. The integration
of the world economy, for example, not only creates new challenges and opportuni-
ties; it also exacerbates trends in vulnerability and contributes to the production
and mitigation of vulnerability in distant places. In one sense, economic integration
and liberalisation have contributed to reduced poverty levels for many millions of
people in the past 30 years, particularly in Asia. As we highlighted above, however,
markets are not a panacea for environmental sustainability: the development of new
markets for ecosystem services challenges existing property rights and institutions
for forests and other resources. Trade liberalisation, while creating opportunities
