An indicator framework for assessing livelihood resilience in the context of social–ecological dynamics

Livelihood resilience draws attention to the factors and processes that keep livelihoods functioning despite change and thus enriches the livelihood approach which puts people, their differential capabilities to cope with shocks and how to reduce poverty and improve adaptive capacity at the centre of analysis. However, the few studies addressing resilience from a livelihood perspective take different approaches and focus only on some dimensions of livelihoods. This paper presents a framework that can be used for a comprehensive empirical analysis of livelihood resilience. We use a concept of resilience that considers agency as well as structure. A review of both theoretical and empirical literature related to livelihoods and resilience served as the basis to integrate the perspectives. The paper identifies the attributes and indicators of the three dimensions of resilience, namely, buffer capacity, self-organisation and capacity for learning. The framework has not yet been systematically tested; however, potentials and limitations of the components of the framework are explored and discussed by drawing on empirical examples from literature on farming systems. Besides providing a basis for applying the resilience concept in livelihood-oriented research, the framework offers a way to communicate with practitioners on identifying and improving the factors that build resilience. It can thus serve as a tool for monitoring the effectiveness of policies and practices aimed at building livelihood resilience.

[1]  Anders Örtenblad.  On differences between organizational learning and learning organization , 2001 .

[2]  Christopher B. Field,et al.  Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation: Index , 2012 .

[3]  B. Walker,et al.  Incorporating Resilience in the Assessment of Inclusive Wealth: An Example from South East Australia , 2010 .

[4]  Urs Wiesmann,et al.  “It was Hard to Come to Mutual Understanding …”—The Multidimensionality of Social Learning Processes Concerned with Sustainable Natural Resource Use in India, Africa and Latin America , 2006 .

[5]  Pierre Bourdieu,et al.  Outline of a Theory of Practice , 2020, On Violence.

[6]  C. Fuchs.  Concepts of Social Self-Organisation , 2002 .

[7]  B. Kiteme,et al.  A human actor model as a conceptual orientation in interdisciplinary research for sustainable development , 2011 .

[8]  A. Zoomers,et al.  Exploring the Frontier of Livelihoods Research , 2005 .

[9]  F. Berkes,et al.  Perception and Interpretation of Climate Change among Quechua Farmers of Bolivia: Indigenous Knowledge as a Resource for Adaptive Capacity , 2013 .

[10]  Michael Ungar,et al.  The social ecology of resilience: addressing contextual and cultural ambiguity of a nascent construct. , 2011, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[11]  H. Maturana,et al.  The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding , 2007 .

[12]  P. Koohafkan,et al.  Enduring Farms: Climate Change, Smallholders and Traditional Farming Communities , 2008 .

[13]  L. Coote,et al.  Measuring organisational learning capability , 2002 .

[14]  Pilar Jerez-Gómez,et al.  Organizational learning capability: a proposal of measurement , 2005 .

[15]  I. Scoones,et al.  Pathways of Change in Africa: Crops, Livestock and Livelihoods in Mali, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe , 2002 .

[16]  C. S. Holling.  Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems , 1973 .

[17]  Hans Hurni,et al.  Research for sustainable development: Foundations, experiences, and perspectives , 2011 .

[18]  A. Kellerman,et al.  The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structuration , 2015 .

[19]  C. Folke.  RESILIENCE: THE EMERGENCE OF A PERSPECTIVE FOR SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ANALYSES , 2006 .

[20]  F. Brand,et al.  Focusing the Meaning(s) of Resilience: Resilience as a Descriptive Concept and a Boundary Object , 2007 .

[21]  S. Kraemer.  Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Gregory Bateson , 1993, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[22]  C. S. Holling,et al.  Resilience and Sustainable Development: Building Adaptive Capacity in a World of Transformations , 2002, Ambio.

[23]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[24]  W. Adger,et al.  Social Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change , 2003 .

[25]  S. Devereux.  Sen's Entitlement Approach: Critiques and Counter-critiques , 2001 .

[26]  W. Adger,et al.  Social Vulnerability to Climate Change and the Architecture of Entitlements , 1999 .

[27]  D. Medin,et al.  Folkecology, Cultural Epidemiology, and the Spirit of the Commons , 2010 .

[28]  Joaquín Alegre,et al.  Measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce , 2007 .

[29]  D. Garvin.  Building a learning organization. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[30]  P. Bourdieu.  Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste* , 2018, Food and Culture.

[31]  Mark Easterby-Smith,et al.  Organizational learning: current debates and opportunities , 1999 .

[32]  V. Isaeva.  Self-organization in biological systems , 2012, Biology Bulletin.

[33]  Olivier Serrat,et al.  Dimensions of the Learning Organization , 2009 .

[34]  R. Chambers,et al.  Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century , 1992 .

[35]  D. Decker,et al.  Social Learning for Collaborative Natural Resource Management , 2003 .

[36]  Arthur L. Norberg,et al.  Trapped in the net: The unanticipated consequences of computerization , 1998 .

[37]  Virginia Murray,et al.  IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) , 2011, Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

[38]  Lindsay C. Stringer,et al.  Research, part of a Special Feature on Resilience and Vulnerability of Arid and Semi-Arid Social Ecological Systems Resilient or Vulnerable Livelihoods? Assessing Livelihood Dynamics and Trajectories in Rural Botswana , 2010 .

[39]  P. Blaikie,et al.  Conceptual and methodological challenges in the study of livelihood trajectories: case-studies in Eastern India and Western Nepal , 1998 .

[40]  M. Moench,et al.  Adaptive Capacity and Livelihood Resilience: Adaptive Strategies for Responding to Floods and Droughts in South Asia , 2004 .

[41]  D. Medin,et al.  Folkecology, Cultural Epidemiology, and the Spirit of the Commons , 2002, Current Anthropology.

[42]  B. Kiteme,et al.  Droughts and famines: The underlying factors and the causal links among agro-pastoral households in semi-arid Makueni district, Kenya , 2008 .

[43]  Jacqueline de Chazal,et al.  Climate change 2007 : impacts, adaptation and vulnerability : Working Group II contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2014 .

[44]  Lindsay C. Stringer,et al.  Explaining agricultural collapse: Macro-forces, micro-crises and the emergence of land use vulnerability in southern Romania , 2009 .

[45]  L. eng,et al.  Sustainable livelihoods guidance sheets , 1999 .

[46]  Rigoberta Menchú.  Learning Endogenous Development: Building on Bio-Cultural Diversity , 2007 .

[47]  Salima Hassas,et al.  Self-organisation: Paradigms and applications , 2003 .

[48]  Jon Norberg,et al.  Resilience Management in Social-ecological Systems: a Working Hypothesis for a Participatory Approach , 2002 .

[49]  Raili Moilanen,et al.  Diagnosing and Measuring Learning Organizations. , 2005 .

[50]  C. Pfeiffer,et al.  Social resilience : a new approach in mitigation research , 2010 .

[51]  J. Boyden,et al.  Questioning the Power of Resilience: Are Children Up to the Task of Disrupting the Transmission of Poverty? , 2007 .

[52]  Hans Mark,et al.  Appendix I: Glossary , 2007 .

[53]  Rocco Scolozzi,et al.  Exploring Panarchy in Alpine Grasslands: an Application of Adaptive Cycle Concepts to the Conservation of a Cultural Landscape , 2012 .

[54]  David J. Smith,et al.  Social Capital in Biodiversity Conservation and Management , 2004 .

[55]  F. Gino,et al.  Is yours a learning organization? , 2008, Harvard business review.

[56]  E. Stanley,et al.  Process-Based Ecological River Restoration: Visualizing Three-Dimensional Connectivity and Dynamic Vectors to Recover Lost Linkages , 2006 .

[57]  Urs Wiesmann,et al.  Moving from sustainable management to sustainable governance of natural resources: The role of social learning processes in rural India, Bolivia and Mali , 2007 .

[58]  I. Prigogine.  Exploring Complexity , 2022 .

[59]  Thomas Tanner,et al.  The resilience renaissance? Unpacking of resilience for tackling climate change and disasters, SCR Discussion Paper 1 , 2010 .

[60]  W. Adger.  Social and ecological resilience: are they related? , 2000 .

[61]  C. Fuchs.  The Antagonistic Self-Organization of Modern Society , 2004 .

[62]  C. Fuchs.  Some Implications of Anthony Giddens' Works for a Theory of Social Self-Organization , 2002 .

[63]  C. Fuchs.  Some Implications of Pierre Bourdieu’s Works for a Theory of Social SelfOrganization , 2003 .

[64]  Graeme S. Cumming,et al.  Change and Identity in Complex Systems , 2005 .

[65]  Michael Ungar,et al.  Resilience across Cultures , 2006 .

[66]  C. Ashley.  Applying Livelihood Approaches to Natural Resource Management Initiatives: Experiences in Namibia and Kenya , 2000 .

[67]  P. Bourdieu.  Forms of Capital , 2002 .

[68]  J. Richardson.  Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education , 1986 .

[69]  E. Lambin,et al.  Responding to Globalization: Impacts of Certification on Colombian Small-Scale Coffee Growers , 2013 .

[70]  B. Campbell,et al.  In Search of Improved Rural Livelihoods in Semi-Arid Regions through Local Management of Natural Resources: Lessons from Case Studies in Zimbabwe , 2007 .

[71]  U. Wiesmann.  Sustainable regional development in rural Africa: conceptual framework and case studies from Kenya. , 1998 .

[72]  G. Brady.  Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action , 1993 .

[73]  E. Ostrom,et al.  Connectivity and the Governance of Multilevel Social-Ecological Systems: The Role of Social Capital , 2009 .

[74]  Fikret Berkes,et al.  Exploring Strategies that Build Livelihood Resilience: a Case from Cambodia , 2006 .

[75]  S. Pimm.  The complexity and stability of ecosystems , 1984, Nature.

[76]  Chinwe Ifejika Speranza,et al.  Resilient Adaptation to Climate Change in African Agriculture , 2010 .

[77]  Derek R. Armitage,et al.  Adaptive co-management and the paradox of learning , 2008 .

[78]  R. Milestad.  Building Farm Resilience Challenges and Prospects for Organic Farming , 2003 .

[79]  B. Field.  GOVERNING THE COMMONS - THE EVOLUTION OF INSTITUTIONS FOR COLLECTIVE ACTION - OSTROM,E , 1992 .

[80]  A. Kinzig,et al.  Assessing Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems : Workbook for Practitioners , 2011 .

[81]  John R. Koza,et al.  Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity. , 1995, Artificial Life.

[82]  J. Ruiz Moreno.  [Organizational learning]. , 2001, Revista de enfermeria.

[83]  B. Lin.  Resilience in Agriculture through Crop Diversification: Adaptive Management for Environmental Change , 2011 .

[84]  M. Ungar.  A Thicker Description of Resilience , 2005 .

[85]  F. Ellis,et al.  The livelihoods approach and management of small-scale fisheries , 2001 .

[86]  B. Smit,et al.  Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability , 2006 .

[87]  I. Scoones.  Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis , 1998 .

[88]  J. Anderies,et al.  From Metaphor to Measurement: Resilience of What to What? , 2001, Ecosystems.

[89]  Rebecka Milestad,et al.  Building Farm Resilience: The Prospects and Challenges of Organic Farming , 2003 .

[90]  J. Pender.  Development pathways for hillsides and highlands: some lessons from Central America and East Africa , 2004 .

[91]  M. Mortimore.  Long-term change in African drylands: can recent history point towards development pathways? , 2003 .

[92]  I. Armbrecht,et al.  Testing ant predation on the coffee berry borer in shaded and sun coffee plantations in Colombia , 2007 .

[93]  C. Krebs.  The balance of nature? Ecological issues in the conservation of species and communities , 1992 .

[94]  Thomas J. Chermack,et al.  The Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ): A validation study in a Korean context , 2009 .

[95]  Amartya Sen,et al.  Resources, Values and Development. , 1985 .

[96]  A. Georges L. Romme,et al.  Circular organizing and triple loop learning , 1999 .

[97]  C. S. Holling,et al.  Panarchy Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems , 2002 .

[98]  C. Pahl-Wostl,et al.  A conceptual framework for analysing adaptive capacity and multi-level learning processes in resource governance regimes , 2009 .

[99]  I. Scoones.  Livelihoods perspectives and rural development , 2009 .

[100]  Daniel H. Kim.  The Link between individual and organizational learning , 1997 .

[101]  Amartya Sen.  Resources, Values, and Development , 1985 .

[102]  C. I. Speranza.  Buffer capacity: capturing a dimension of resilience to climate change in African smallholder agriculture , 2013 .

[103]  M. Kuefer.  The Constitution Of Society Outline Of The Theory Of Structuration , 2016 .

[104]  Carl Folke,et al.  Navigating social-ecological systems , 2006 .

[105]  G. Cumming.  Spatial Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems , 2011 .

[106]  L. Pritchett,et al.  Sociability : Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania , 1999 .

[107]  M. Altieri.  The ecological role of biodiversity in agroecosystems , 1999 .

[108]  C. Folke,et al.  Navigating social–ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change: Fikret Berkes, Johan Colding and Carl Folke (Eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2003. xxi + 393 pages. ISBN 0-521-81592-4 (hardback), £65 , 2004 .

[109]  C. S. Holling.  Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems , 2001, Ecosystems.

[110]  B. Kiteme,et al.  Small-scale farming in semi-arid areas: Livelihood dynamics between 1997 and 2010 in Laikipia, Kenya , 2012 .

[111]  Myles Oelofse,et al.  An Indicator Framework for Assessing Agroecosystem Resilience , 2012 .

[112]  J. Krupinsky,et al.  Managing Plant Disease Risk in Diversified Cropping Systems , 2002 .

[113]  C. Folke,et al.  REDISCOVERY OF TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AS ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT , 2000 .