Understanding Disturbances and Responses in Social-Ecological Systems

Current research in coupled social-ecological systems (SESs) often draws on theories of complex adaptive systems, resilience, and robustness. Many studies analyze the resilience, robustness, or vulnerability of these systems to disturbances and stressors, but do not connect their particular case with a general notion of what counts as a disturbance. This makes theoretical generalization of how outcomes are coproduced by disturbances and SESs difficult. These outcomes, in turn, serve as an entry point to represent SESs as dynamic systems that evolve and change over time. This study proceeds by first building a typology of disturbances to facilitate a better understanding of disturbance-response dyads in an SES. It then introduces a simple framework for analyzing SESs over time. Finally, the article applies this framework to case studies drawing on previous fieldwork.