Held on Friday, 27 April 2012, 14.15-17.00
Hambergssalen, Geocentrum, Uppsala University
Sustainability is a contested concept, of acute relevance to current discussions on how to ensure human and broader biological survival with limited earthly resources. Resilience theory and Political ecology are two influential analytical approaches. Both address the connection between environmental and societal conditions, but in quite different ways.
Resilience theory aims to analyze the capacity of social-ecological systems to withstand shocks from phenomena such as environmental degradation and climate change, and to rebuild and renew themselves afterwards.
Political ecology sees inherent conflicts in the quest for sustainability, since socio-ecological systems at all levels are highly unequal. Conflicting interests and power relations must therefore, according to this approach, be a key focus of the analysis.
DevNet held to a thought-provoking debate on these different approaches, and their implications for policy and practice!