Author Archives: Buzz Holling

SFU Convocation Address – Global Resilience Requires Novelty

[On Oct 7th, 2011 Buzz Holling was awarded a Honorary Doctorate of Science at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, Canada. Below is his convocation address - editor] Sixty years ago I was where you graduates are now, but graduating from … Continue reading

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Resilience and Life in the Arctic

On Thursday, March 10, 2011, the Resilience Alliance Board voted to accept Eddy Carmack as the new Program Research Director. Eddy is a climate oceanographer studying water and people from oceans to estuaries as scientific lead for the Canada’s Three … Continue reading

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Transforming Universities

All my career my work was launched from a disciplinary base, but grew from developing an interdisciplinary character. And now some of the best of natural and social sciences is just that – complexity theory, for example is a lovely … Continue reading

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Where to go Now? : Reflections Pt 13

I was surprised and delighted to learn during this year, 2006, that several organizations have recently been established with resilience as one of their primary themes. The most recent is a new Center on Resilience and Sustainability for Social/Ecological Systems … Continue reading

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Where Ideas Originate; What Makes Some Useful? : Reflections Pt 12

I have been asked why I have so many novel, yet useful ideas, ones that eventually move to some kind of fruition, testing and, usually, after a very long time, acceptance.  I do not really know, so what I write … Continue reading

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What is this Panarchy Thing? : Reflections Pt 11

“Panarchy” is an odd name, but one that is meant to capture the way living systems both persist and yet innovate. It shows how fast and slow, small and big events and processes can transform ecosystems and organisms through evolution, … Continue reading

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What I Learned of Organizations : Reflections Pt 10

I have been lucky enough, or inspired enough, or periodically unsettled enough to have worked in five organizations during their times of innovative inspiration, and two organizations as they wound down or consolidated. As much as any research, those experiences … Continue reading

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Diversity and Resilience : Reflections Pt 9

The three synthesis papers I’ve discussed all converged on some observations and conclusions concerning how resilience, really robust resilience, arises from diversity. I had long shared most biologists’ faith that the two were linked. But then, in contrast, I had … Continue reading

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Testing Panarchy : Reflections Pt 8

The third paper of my papers that the students asked me about was: Holling, C.S. 1992. Cross-scale morphology, geometry and dynamics of ecosystems. Ecological Monographs. 62(4):447-502. That paper was inspired by my 1986 chapter The resilience of terrestrial ecosystems; local … Continue reading

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Panarchy: Reflections Pt 7

The essence of our conclusions to the Panarchy book occurred to me on a plane as I flew to a meeting with officers of a foundation that was new to me. I had to summarize, succinctly, the whole resilience project … Continue reading

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