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A co-evolutionary framework for understanding transformation & resilience of industrial & societal systems : the example of South Yorkshire mining communities

Jamie McGlade Jamie McGlade, Rob Murray, Jim Baldwin, Belinder Winder & Keith Ridgeway

Abstract

Despite its frequent usage by ecologists, economists and some social scientists, resilience is not a unitary concept with a precise and unambiguous definition. The ecological debate has moved from an evolutionary model based on the maintenance of stability, to one dominated by a sequence of interacting adaptive cycles based on a developmental sequence. More recently, these ideas have been extended to encompass the idea of panarchy, which emphasises the evolutionary nature of nested adaptive cycles, with each level going through the cycle of growth, maturation, destruction and renewal (Gunderson et al. 1995). A key emphasis in this model is that periods of gradual growth and rapid transformation not only coexist, but act to compliment one another. An alternative model of co-evolution is presented, incorporating a revised schema based on the mutual interaction of values, knowledge, agency, social organisation and resources. In developing our case for the application of the model in understanding societal resilience in South Yorkshire's mining communities a series of 41 qualitative interviews were conducted with men who worked in the mining industry for varying periods of time. The interviews were designed to cover the many assumptions that persist concerning the closure of the mines across South Yorkshire and the subsequent effects upon local social networks. Further, the concept of resilience is presented as a particularly useful tool in categorising different patterns of behaviour and change observed in industrial systems with interesting and insightful comparisons made in looking at the decline of both the British and German coal mining industries.

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