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Resilience: When First Principles, Social Norms, and Justice Meet


Speaker: Steward T.A. Pickett, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Abstract: Resilience is a topic that invites both passion and confusion. This combination of emotional states is likely to continue to govern discussions regardless of attempts to quell either one. However, from a basic science perspective, it is possible to identify dimensions along which confusion may grow, and so help provide some clarity in thought. The scientific confusion can be addressed by identifying the first principles of resilience as a mechanism of biophysical and social change in the material world. However, passions are excited when resilience is used in social situations where diverse and often conflicting values are in play.

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