Prof. Carl Folke on Complex Sustainability Challenges
We were delighted to welcome Prof. to speak at the recent opening ceremony of our Centre for Complex Systems Studies. Prof Folke is co-founder and director of the as well as Director of the . He is one of the world鈥檚 most influential thinkers on sustainability, with more than 100,000 academic citations to his name.
Socio-ecological Systems
Prof. Folke is particularly recognized for his pioneering work on socio-ecological systems, resilience thinking and biosphere stewardship. In his talk, Prof. Folke emphasised that our societies are embedded parts of the biosphere and dependent on its life-supporting ecosystems, while simultaneously shaping them in complex ways. He showed that socio-ecological systems are strongly coupled, coevolving systems that act in non-linear ways. He highlighted that an understanding of the complex adaptive nature of socio-ecological systems can help us manage them sustainably.
Complexity and Societal Challenges
Prof. Folke鈥檚 innovative ideas, based on complex systems thinking, have now become mainstream in sustainability research as well as having an impact on policy. His research has demonstrated how complex systems thinking can be a powerful lens with which to understand the interaction between humans and their environment. It was therefore a great launch of the CCSS, where our aim is to harness the power of complex systems thinking to tackle the challenges facing society today.