The three aspects of resilience (persistence, adaptive capacity and transformability) describe important capacities of living systems: to the three aspects of resilience (persistence, adaptive capacity and transformability) describe important capacities of living systems: to resist collapse and maintain vital functions, to adapt to changing conditions (learn and self-organize) and in the case of Socio-Ecological Systems to apply foresight and anticipation to ‘design for positive emergence’ — to transform the system towards increased health and an improved capacity to respond wisely and creatively to disruptions and change.
Ervin László argues in The Chaos Point that the world and humanity is currently at a crossroads between breakdown and breakthrough. If we take appropriate actions, the chaos point could be an opportunity to “leap to a new civilization” (László, 2006: 109).
Finding a balance between persistence, adaptive capacity and transformative resilience will determine — to a certain extent — how turbulent, rapid and profound the transition will be.