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A resilience perspective on sustainability transformations

This is the second seminar in the seminar series Sustainable Transformation Seminars.

Time: Fri 2020-10-09 12.00 - 13.00

Participating: Lisen Schultz

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More information about the seminar series Sustainable Transformation Seminars.

In this talk, I will introduce the concept of social-ecological resilience, the capacity of complex adaptive systems of people and nature to live with change and continue to develop, and how resilience thinking can support sustainability transformations. Drawing on my research on sustainability transformations and resilience-based management in UNESCO biosphere reserves, I will give some concrete examples of lessons learned. I will also present seven principles for managing resilience in social-ecological systems, generated from decades of case studies and theory building in an interdisciplinary network of resilience scholars: maintain diversity and redundancy; manage connectivity; manage slow variables and feedbacks; foster complex adaptive systems thinking; encourage learning; broaden participation; and promote polycentric governance.

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Speaker: Dr. Lisen Schultz, sustainability scientist and Deputy director of transdisciplinarity at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm university.

About Dr. Lisen Schultz

Dr. Lisen Schultz is a sustainability scientist and Deputy director of transdisciplinarity at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm university. Her empirical research has focused on understanding management and governance of UNESCO biosphere reserves across the globe, sites designated to be role models and living laboratories for sustainable development. She is deeply engaged in the interface between knowledge and action and has extensive experience of facilitating dialogues across disciplines and cultures, with the aim of contributing to sustainability transformations. For example, she is the programme director of the centre’s executive programme in resilience thinking, designed to connect CEOs and board members of large companies to the frontiers of sustainability science. She is also a member of the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO.