socialecologisch

Socialecologisch, or social-ecological, refers to an integrative approach that treats human societies and ecological systems as an interdependent, dynamic whole. It examines how social institutions, economies, cultures, and governance interact with ecological processes such as resource dynamics, biodiversity, climate, and ecosystem services, shaping outcomes for resilience and sustainability. The central idea is that social and ecological components cannot be understood in isolation, because feedbacks and cross-scale interactions link human decisions with ecological change.

Key concepts include resilience, adaptability, and transformability, which describe a system's capacity to absorb disturbances, adjust to changing conditions, or reorganize into a new state. Governance and institutions, including property rights, rules, and norms, mediate the social-ecological coupling, while knowledge integration from science, local experience, and indigenous practices informs decision making. Ecosystem services—provisioning, regulating, cultural services—provide the link between ecological health and human well-being. Methodologically, the field favors interdisciplinary, participatory, and systems-based approaches such as co-management, scenario planning, and adaptive management.

Social-ecological thinking emerged from resilience theory in ecology and the study of common-pool resources, with influential contributions from scholars like C.S. Holling, Elinor Ostrom, Fikret Berkes, and Carl Folke. It is applied in resource management, disaster risk reduction, urban planning, climate adaptation, and conservation. Critiques note challenges in integrating social and ecological data, scale mismatches, and normative judgments about what constitutes sustainability. Overall, it provides a framework for understanding and managing complex human-environment interactions.