its people in the face of growing megatrends like climate change, rising energy
prices and economic crises.
The term ‘resilience’ is used here to define a particular structural characteristic of
a complex system. Resilient systems are those that are able to bounce back or
recover their strength quickly after a shock or crisis. In the case of human systems,
like cities or economies, this means that the functioning of basic services for the
population will be quickly restored.
Such restorative capacity is higher if several alternative processes can deliver on
important system outcomes (diversity), if these are not all easily hampered by the
same shock (decentralization) and if several processes keep their potential to
increase output if necessary (redundance). Resilience is therefore a very dynamic
and not easily visible or measurable quality. High resilience usually means high
levels of the self-organizing capacity of a system, so that it can learn, create and
redesign processes essential to their functioning. The mechanistic view of systems
in the mainstream economic paradigm will often lead to the sacrifice of this quality
for efficient static stability and higher productivity.
Rob Hopkins, one of the leading figures in the Transition Town movement and
author of The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience
(2008) adds a sociopolitical component to his definition: Resilient sustainable
communities are structured along three principles. These are their ‘diversity’ of
life-supporting solutions or livelihoods, ‘modular structuration’ with buffers to the
outer systems that increase self-reliance possibilities, and ‘tight feedback loops’ that
bring the results of actions closer to those responsible for them (Hopkins 2008: 55–
56). The latter is generally regarded as important to ensure that negative developments are picked up more quickly.
Resilience has also become a frequent term in the context of natural catastrophes
that destroy infrastructure or limit the possibilities of shipping and flying goods
around the globe. Recent examples are the Japanese tsunami that caused the 2011
Fukushima disaster and energy system breakdown and the Icelandic volcano
eruption that threatened the United Kingdom’s globalized food supply chains in
2010. Here, as in the WEF 2012 Global Risk Report, it was primarily the infrastructure and its control chain that was assessed for resilience. The more decentralized units with decision-making powers and local knowledge combined were
much faster in restoring the energy supply to people than centralized ones with
hierarchical control. From an exchange-value-focused perspective on process
design, the latter are of course much more efficient.
We see that the notions about which processes are promising and seem valid
depend on which overarching system view one adopts. Transition Towns do not
treat the economic system as the overarching one but as a subordinate means to
ensure that human need satisfaction can be achieved in alignment with the natural
laws of the ecological system. An explicit part of increasing self-reliance and
resilience means turning away from certain massive economies of scale that are
only possible under systems with a high division of labor. This may lead to
decreases in the overall availability of consumption goods, but could lead to the
higher quality and longevity of each good produced and to lower risks in terms of
4.2 Pioneering Civil Society: Transition Towns for Resilient Local Solutions
127
prices and economic crises.
The term ‘resilience’ is used here to define a particular structural characteristic of
a complex system. Resilient systems are those that are able to bounce back or
recover their strength quickly after a shock or crisis. In the case of human systems,
like cities or economies, this means that the functioning of basic services for the
population will be quickly restored.
Such restorative capacity is higher if several alternative processes can deliver on
important system outcomes (diversity), if these are not all easily hampered by the
same shock (decentralization) and if several processes keep their potential to
increase output if necessary (redundance). Resilience is therefore a very dynamic
and not easily visible or measurable quality. High resilience usually means high
levels of the self-organizing capacity of a system, so that it can learn, create and
redesign processes essential to their functioning. The mechanistic view of systems
in the mainstream economic paradigm will often lead to the sacrifice of this quality
for efficient static stability and higher productivity.
Rob Hopkins, one of the leading figures in the Transition Town movement and
author of The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience
(2008) adds a sociopolitical component to his definition: Resilient sustainable
communities are structured along three principles. These are their ‘diversity’ of
life-supporting solutions or livelihoods, ‘modular structuration’ with buffers to the
outer systems that increase self-reliance possibilities, and ‘tight feedback loops’ that
bring the results of actions closer to those responsible for them (Hopkins 2008: 55–
56). The latter is generally regarded as important to ensure that negative developments are picked up more quickly.
Resilience has also become a frequent term in the context of natural catastrophes
that destroy infrastructure or limit the possibilities of shipping and flying goods
around the globe. Recent examples are the Japanese tsunami that caused the 2011
Fukushima disaster and energy system breakdown and the Icelandic volcano
eruption that threatened the United Kingdom’s globalized food supply chains in
2010. Here, as in the WEF 2012 Global Risk Report, it was primarily the infrastructure and its control chain that was assessed for resilience. The more decentralized units with decision-making powers and local knowledge combined were
much faster in restoring the energy supply to people than centralized ones with
hierarchical control. From an exchange-value-focused perspective on process
design, the latter are of course much more efficient.
We see that the notions about which processes are promising and seem valid
depend on which overarching system view one adopts. Transition Towns do not
treat the economic system as the overarching one but as a subordinate means to
ensure that human need satisfaction can be achieved in alignment with the natural
laws of the ecological system. An explicit part of increasing self-reliance and
resilience means turning away from certain massive economies of scale that are
only possible under systems with a high division of labor. This may lead to
decreases in the overall availability of consumption goods, but could lead to the
higher quality and longevity of each good produced and to lower risks in terms of
4.2 Pioneering Civil Society: Transition Towns for Resilient Local Solutions
127