PARENT SESSION
Symposium 4: Ecological Complexity and Sustainability
Organized by: E Rykiel and T Allen
Tuesday, August 5. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Oglethorpe Auditorium.
Complexity and Sustainability, Part I: Social Complexity.
Tainter, Joseph*,1, 1 Rocky Mountain Research Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT- While there has been a tradition within ecology to equate complexity with diversity and diversity with stability, in human systems these relationships are quite different. In a human social system, efforts to achieve stability or sustainability often generate complexity. Complexity in human institutions arises through efforts at problem solving, with problem solving being frequently directed toward sustaining a valued activity or way of life. This presentation defines sustainability, resiliency, and collapse in human institutions, and shows that each condition may arise from different strategies of complexity in problem solving. Historical and contemporary case studies illustrate principles of sustainability that apply in general to problem-solving institutions, including institutions concerned with natural resource management.
Key words: resiliency, collapse, complexity, sustainability