Non-Linear Thinking in the Anthropocene

Resilience has a dual nature, of thinking about sustaining what we want to sustain, AND building the capacity to adapt or transform toward something better. We live in a world that is uncertain and difficult to control. Conventional management relies on concepts such as maximum sustained yield, which is the idea that we want to maximize what we can get out of something over a long period of time, but relies on the world working in a linear way and doesn’t take into account long-term effects. The Arctic and organic pollutants serve as an example. Management should, rather, be viewed as a learning process rather than a solution. It is also important to recognize that it is difficult to control people in a diverse world, so people need to be brought together in shared agreements and trust. There are three areas for action: developing new understanding to cope with uncertainty; enabling learning socially, technically, and institutionally; and developing the capacity to navigate change.

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