OPERATIONALIZING POLYCENTRICITY FOR LANDSCAPE RESILIENCE

Abstract

Landscapes are complex adaptive socialecological systems that encompass human and natural and built environments, and provide essential public and common goods to societies. Facing fast socio-economic, environmental, and policy changes and increasing uncertainties, building resilience has emerged as a main objective for landscape planning, design, and management. A key strategy to make landscape social-ecological systems resilient is to form appropriate governance forms that can be responsive and adaptive to external shocks and other stressors. Polycentricity is such a form that has been proven to enhance resilience. By analyzing a variety of cases, it demonstrates polycentricity — both its breadth of inclusion and collaborative degree — can affect governance outcomes. This is the best of times to become more plural in theory and methodology in order to have a stronger capacity of navigating the complexities of landscape social-ecological systems.

Keywords

Polycentricity / Landscape Resilience / Adaptive Governance / Complex Adaptive System

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press