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- Convenors:
-
Luigi Pellizzoni
(Scuola Normale Superiore)
mario pansera
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- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
Short Abstract
Resilience has become a buzzword, used either to obscure or illuminate divergent views on socio-ecological dynamics, reinforcing hegemonic relations or supporting democratic debates on solidaristic and sustainable futures, as an STS creative task. The Panel invites papers addressing this issue.
Description
Resilience has become a buzzword, encompassing divergent futures and means to achieve them. For elites, resilience means finding ways to restore the hegemonic socio-political order amidst any disruptions, be it a matter of epidemics, war, climate change, etc. For critics, resilience means extending solidaristic relationships and environmentally sustainable means.
Initially seen as the ability of a system to recover after a disturbance (Folke, 2006), resilience implied a mechanical metaphor from engineering, whereby a structure can bounce back to its original shape. In ecology, this meant the ability to absorb change while retaining key functions (Holling, 2001). For socio-ecological systems, adaptability and transformability became more salient (Fath et al., 2015).
A core ambiguity lies in the relationship between continuity and change. Who and how is to define which are the elements of the system to be preserved or abandoned? Functionalist accounts obscure core decisions, and struggles. Furthermore, the framework of resilience has increasingly shifted from predictability to unpredictability. More than of systems design, the matter is of strengthening reactivity to surprise, as for example in the framework of preparedness (Lakoff 2017).
During the Covid-19 pandemic, divergent meanings became more prominent but were encompassed by the ambiguous slogan, ‘Build back better’. When the dominant agri-food supply chains bounced back, this was understood by some as an undesirable resilience, reinforcing unsustainable structures (Zollet et al., 2021). By contrast, resilience should seek to ‘bounce forwards’ through a transformative role fostering socially just system improvements (Jones et al. 2021; Manyena et al., 2011).
In short, the term resilience can be used either to obscure or illuminate divergent understandings of socio-ecological dynamics. By default, the former role reinforces the hegemonic meaning. The latter role is crucial for opening up democratic debate on possible societal futures, as an STS creative task. This Panel invites papers which address that task.