SESMAD

Social diversity and general resilience

Variable relationship:

Diversity increases the chances that components of a SES with similar functions have different responses to disturbance so that underlying function is preserved. Carpenter et al (2012) argue that social diversity (Cultural Heterogeneity and Interest Heterogeneity) promotes problem solving (Actor Adaptive Capacity) which allows actors to adapt their behaviors to enhance resilience (Ecological Resilience) and maintain the existing system configuration (Basin Switch).

This theory is somewhat contradictory to collective action theory, which suggests that group homogeneity promotes cooperation.

Project

SESMAD

Sector(s)

Scientific Field

Component Type(s)

Status

Public

Variables

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Variable	Role	Role Explanation	Value
Cultural heterogeneity	Underlying independent variable	Social diversity, represented by the interaction between cultural and interest heterogeneity, can promote problem solving and innovation, and thereby contribute to actor adaptive capacity.	High
Interest heterogeneity	Underlying independent variable	Social diversity, represented by the interaction between cultural and interest heterogeneity can promote problem solving and innovation, and thereby contribute to actor adaptive capacity	High
Actor adaptive capacity	Proximate independent variable	Social diversity, represented by the interaction between cultural and interest heterogeneity can promote problem solving and innovation, thereby increasing resource users' and managers capacities to adapt, manage and maintain the ecological resilience of their system	High
Ecological resilience	Intermediate outcome	Higher levels of actor adaptive capacity increases the potential of resource users' and managers to respond to uncertainty and perturbation, and thereby to maintain or enhance the ecological resilience of the system.	Moderate to high resilience
Basin switch	Final outcome	Higher ecological resilience means the defined commons is better able to buffer, recover and adapt to disturbance events, thus remaining in a desirable stable state.	No Desirable

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Related Theories

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Theory	Relationship	Characterizing Variables
Conditions for general resilience	nested
Cultural heterogeneity and collective action	contradictory
Interest heterogeneity and collective action	contradictory

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Related Studies

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Study	Relationship
Carpenter, Stephen R., et al., 2012. General Resilience to Cope with Extreme Events. Sustainability 4 (12): 3248-3259	describe

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Social-Ecological Systems Meta-Analysis Database: Theory

Social diversity and general resilience

Variables

Related Theories

Related Studies