Handbook of Sustainability and Social Science Research

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the complex interplays between and among sustainability, resilience, adaptation and transformation, key paradigms and analytical concepts that have emerged from the human-environmental interactions, social-ecological systems, and global environmental change literatures. Specifically, this chapter provides a summary of how these key paradigms and analytical concepts have evolved over time and synthesizes current debates about their interplays. Our findings reveal certain theoretical synergies between and among sustainability, resilience, adaptation and transformation, as well as epistemological tensions and practical tradeoffs when actions are taken to promote ostensibly desirable attributes of social-ecological systems through on-the-ground actions. These findings highlight the need for scholars, practitioners and policy makers to be explicit about the normative assumptions associated with sustainability, resilience, adaptation and transformation as they complement or contradict each other in local contexts, and how they may affect or be affected by the characteristics of and processes within local communities. Such understanding will be crucial for moving towards developing adaptation or transformation interventions that maximize the achievement of sustainability or resilience policy goals and minimize potential negative outcomes on both human well-being and environmental conditions.