Complex socio-ecological systems/Review and closure

April 15th, Bob and Simone.

Discussion of Resilience Alliance Workbook for Practitioners.

Review, Evaluation and Closure.

Evaluation of the seminar: We asked participants to relfect and write about main learnings and aspects that could be improved in the way the seminar was organized and conducted.

Learnings:

- Resilience is a property of CAS, and it's just one additional tool or lens that we could use to understand or study a system.

- Broader vision on the feasibility of application of the resilience perspective in my work.

- An interesting tool to support the analysis of Ecosystem Services in a given system.

- The evolution of SES and resilience thinking.

- The tension that still exists between ecologists and social scientists in interdisciplinary work of this level.

- There are no shortcuts or easy answers to these questions.

- Importance of multidisciplinary team in understanding, discussing and acting upon a system.

- Concepts related to SES/CHANS and resilience.

- How perceptions of the world influences perceptions of SES and resilience.

- The epistemiologic nature of discussions of SES and resilience.

- Enhanced understanding of SES, CAS, etc. What are the issues, current debates/critiques and tools.

- Where to find resources on SES, CAS, etc (wikiversity).

- Challenges of semantics - the biophysical/social divide when trying to discuss/come to terms with SES, CHANS, Resilience, etc.

Could be improved:

- More on hands-on methods for operationalizing concepts;

- Pick-up a case study to follow through and develop throughout the semester;

- Have the seminar formalized so people woul attend it consistently keeping sequence;

- Overview and analyses of real-world case studies.

- Focus more on complex adaptive systems, of which resilience is part.

- Focus on our own research, on how to apply some of the concepts in our work, using breakout sessions or group exercises;

- Encourage/engage biophysical scientists dialoguing with social scientists, in a way that is valuable for both.

- Bring people to present work done under this approach (field experience).

THANKS TO ALL PARTICIPANTS FOR THEIR INSIGHTS, CONTRIBUTIONS, CRITIQUES AND COLLABORATION IN THE SEMINAR AND IN BUILDING THIS WIKIVERSITY SITE!