Running the R.A.T. race – exploring Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability in transition efforts to the low carbon economy

Research Cluster

Speaker:	Dr Fernando Correia, University of Exeter
Date:	Thursday 10 January 2013
Time:	4.30 pm
Location:	Conf room 1, XFI Building, Streatham Campus

Further details

"No matter what you do in the rat race, success is not certain but if you do nothing, failure is." Paul Ulasien ‘Resilience’ as a concept has been growing in popularity in recent years, being used in a variety of fields from ecology to organizational psychology. Although definitions vary, in all fields the concept has closely related interpretations that can be summarized as the capability of a system to absorb change and disruption but still reorganize and return to a stable state with similar characteristics as before. ‘Resilience thinking’ in turn has been developing as an integrative and interdisciplinary approach for the analysis of the dynamics of social, ecologic and economic systems, providing a useful perspective to inform policy-making and manage transitions towards more sustainable development paths. This presentation will explore how resilience thinking (and its associated concepts of adaptability and transformability) can contribute with alternative theoretical interpretations to organizational change efforts towards sustainability. After an initial introduction of key theoretical principles, the ensuing discussion will focus specifically on the challenges of implementing low carbon management approaches at organizational level, through a systems’ and resilience lens.