The resilience perspective is increasingly used as an approach for understanding the dynamics of social–ecological systems. This article presents the origin of the resilience perspective and provides an overview of its development to date. With roots in one branch of ecology and the discovery of multiple basins of attraction in ecosystems in the 1960–1970s, it inspired social and environmental scientists to challenge the dominant stable equilibrium view. The resilience approach emphasizes non-linear dynamics, thresholds, uncertainty and surprise, how periods of gradual change interplay with periods of rapid change and how such dynamics interact across temporal and spatial scales. The history was dominated by empirical observations of ecosystem dynamics interpreted in mathematical models, developing into the adaptive management approach for responding to ecosystem change. Serious attempts to integrate the social dimension is currently taking place in resilience work reflected in the large numbers of sciences involved in explorative studies and new discoveries of linked social–ecological systems. Recent advances include understanding of social processes like, social learning and social memory, mental models and knowledge–system integration, visioning and scenario building, leadership, agents and actor groups, social networks, institutional and organizational inertia and change, adaptive capacity, transformability and systems of adaptive governance that allow for management of essential ecosystem services.

Resilience: the emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses

Human institutions—ways of organizing activities—affect the resilience of the environment. Locally evolved institutional arrangements governed by stable communities and buffered from outside forces have sustained resources successfully for centuries, although they often fail when rapid change occurs. Ideal conditions for governance are increasingly rare. Critical problems, such as transboundary pollution, tropical deforestation, and climate change, are at larger scales and involve nonlocal influences. Promising strategies for addressing these problems include dialogue among interested parties, officials, and scientists; complex, redundant, and layered institutions; a mix of institutional types; and designs that facilitate experimentation, learning, and change.

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The Struggle to Govern the Commons

With the publication of The Logic of Collective Action in 1965, Mancur Olson challenged a cherished foundation of modern democratic thought that groups would tend to form and take collective action...

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Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms

In a seminal paper, Garrett Hardin argued in 1968 that users of a commons are caught in an inevitable process that leads to the destruction of the resources on which they depend. This article discusses new insights about such problems and the conditions most likely to favor sustainable uses of common-pool resources. Some of the most difficult challenges concern the management of large-scale resources that depend on international cooperation, such as fresh water in international basins or large marine ecosystems. Institutional diversity may be as important as biological diversity for our long-term survival.

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Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges

This first report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment describes the conceptual framework that is being used in the MA. It is not a formal assessment of the literature, but rather a scientifically informed presentation of the choices made by the assessment team in structuring the analysis and framing the issues. The conceptual framework elaborated in this report describes the approach and assumptions that will underlie the analysis conducted in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The framework was developed through interactions among the experts involved in the MA as well as stakeholders who will use its findings. It represents one means of examining the linkages between ecosystems and human well-being that is both scientifically credible and relevant to decision-makers. This framework for analysis and decision-making should be of use to a wide array of individuals and institutions in government, the private sector, and civil society that seek to incorporate considerations of ecosystem services in their assessments, plans, and actions.

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Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment

Resistance to changes in property rights or, why not ITQs?

Individual transferable quotas, comanagement, and community: lessons from Nova Scotia

Social structure and debates on fisheries management in the Atlantic surf clam fishery

Communication problems need to be solved if managers are to be more persuasive about the need for limitations on fishing, to protect and restore fish populations. The context is widespread scepticism about the effectiveness of management on both sides of the Atlantic. That scepticism is fuelled by assessment bias as seen in the case of the northern cod of Newfoundland, and by failure to take into account differences in perceptions of stock size and fishing mortality, differences in causal reasoning about fishing pressure and environmental factors influencing stock size; and differences in the capacity to read and understand the mostly graphic information that underlies and is often used to explain management decisions. This analysis is based on interviews and observations in the European Union and the northeastern USA.

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Improving communication from managers to fishers in Europe and the US

Citation for published version (APA): McCay, B. J., Johnson, T. R., Martin, K. S., & Wilson, D. C. (2006). Gearing up for Improved Collaboration: the Potentials and Limits of Cooperative Research for Incorporating Fishermen's Knowledge. In Proceedings of the American Fisheries Society/Sea Grant Symposium: partnerships for a Common Purpose: Cooperative Fisheries Research and Management American Fisheries Society.

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Bonnie J. McCay

Papers

Resistance to changes in property rights or, why not ITQs?

Individual transferable quotas, comanagement, and community: lessons from Nova Scotia

Social structure and debates on fisheries management in the Atlantic surf clam fishery

Improving communication from managers to fishers in Europe and the US

Gearing up for Improved Collaboration: the Potentials and Limits of Cooperative Research for Incorporating Fishermen's Knowledge