Dr. Brian Walker and his colleagues write, that in ecological terms, resilience is "the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks. *
Listen to Dr. Walker here:
Dr. Stephen Carpenter, from the University of Wisconsin, says that, "Resilience is the answer to the
question... How can things change and persist at the same time?"
According to Dr. Carpenter, a resilient system has at least three different properties.
"A resilient system:
1) could be able to withstand a shock without losing its basic functions.
2) could adapt to changing circumstances.
3) is able to transform to a different way of life when the current way of life is no longer feasible."
Listen to Dr. Carpenter here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msiIV5NdLVs&feature=em-share_video_user
Merrymeeting Resilience is a group of people who are working toward creating more resilience in Brunswick, Maine and the surrounding area. For information about our public events you can join our on-line Meet-up group at http://www.meetup.com/Merrymeeting-Permaculture-Transition/
*Walker, B., Holling, C. S., Carpenter, S. R., Kinzig, A. (2004). Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability in Social-ecological Systems"
