Among the hundreds of social-ecological systems researchers gathered in Montreal this past August for the PECS - 3 conference was a group of RAYS (Resilience Alliance Young Scholars) presenting their research in a session titled "Strengthening the theoretical basis of resilience in practice". Over the course of the past three years, RAYS members have led working groups and participated in a series of workshops and meetings, as part of a project supported by the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation. The diverse set of research initiatives shared the common goal of advancing resilience practice to create more sustainable and just futures and the conference provided an important opportunity to share this work with an international network of researchers, practitioners, and peers.

In a conference blog post Madeline Sides writes "This session offered a compelling conversation between several distinct, but related researcher voices. I particularly enjoyed seeing process photos and the bigger context of how this research network was collaborating. I appreciate the efforts of these researchers to address a community-wide need to make resilience assessment theories and tools more interpretable and useable to improve the quality of our collective work."

Read the full blog post "Early Career Researchers Use Multiple Approaches Collaboratively to Strengthen Resilience in Practice" written by Madeline Sides and edited by Rafael Lembi, on the PECS website.

The 2024 Resilience Alliance short course is being offered in collaboration with NSERC ResNet and The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS).

We are delighted to announce that the 5-day course will take place in-person and is an official side-event of the PECS-3: Pathways to Sustainability conference taking place in Montreal, Canada the following week.

The week-long immersive course will run from August 5-9, 2024 at Le Baluchon Éco-villégiature, near Montreal, Canada. Course participants will benefit from a small-group format and an intensive learning-by-doing program that draws on the expertise of scholars in resilience and sustainability research networks.

THEME
Research methods for resilience and sustainability science. The course will focus on research methods that are commonly used in studying social-ecological systems, with a special emphasis on participatory and place-based methods. Drawing on The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems, the course offers a unique opportunity to learn directly from leaders in the field, whilst connecting with other students and early-career researchers from around the world.

FORMAT
The five-day immersive course will take place at a rural eco-retreat center outside of Montreal from Monday August 5 to Friday August 9. All course participants and instructors will stay on-site at Le Baluchon (www.baluchon.com). A mix of engaging lectures and presentations will be delivered by course instructors, along with daily group project activities and scheduled outdoor time for recreation and reflection. A course pack with the detailed program, readings, and other material will be shared in advance. Attendees are expected to participate fully throughout the course being present for all plenary and group sessions, meals and other activities that are part of the formal program.

LECTURERS
Allyson Quinlan (Convener) - Resilience Alliance, Canada
Patty Balvanera- National University of Mexico, Mexico
Reinette Biggs - University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Alta de Vos - Rhodes University, South Africa
Lance Gunderson - Emory University, USA
Garry Peterson - Stockholm Resilience Center, Sweden

HOW TO APPLY
Post-graduate students including PhD, Post-docs and early-career researchers are invited to apply by completing the online application form. We are seeking to gather a diverse team of participants from across the globe, with diverse disciplinary backgrounds. We want to know your motivations for participating in the course and what you will bring to the group. Submit your application here: https://forms.gle/1RQaxCWqvugCfzZK9

Application deadline is February 29, 2024.

COST
We are offering a sliding course fee structure. The full course cost is $2000 USD per participant. A number of partial and full scholarships are currently available and we are seeking additional sources of funding to ensure inclusivity. If accepted, a course deposit of $500 USD will be due by March 29. Course fees cover: chartered bus between Montreal and Le Baluchon, 5 days and 4 nights accommodation in a single occupancy room, all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee breaks), outdoor activities, meeting space and course instruction.

MORE INFORMATION
Visit: www.resalliance.org/courses

The annual science meeting was finally back to an in-person event and provided an opportunity for members of the Resilience Alliance network to make progress on projects and working groups supported by a grant from The Rasmussen Foundation. A multi-year project "Strengthening the theoretical basis of resilience in practice", aims to develop a toolbox for resilience measurement and assessment that can advance resilience scholarship and real-world practice.

A key component of this project involves support for early-career researchers to develop international working groups to collaborate on multi-disciplinary research initiatives. The science meeting provided an opportunity for these research teams to work together in person as well as form new working groups under the broad theme of resilience practice. Focus topics include: modelling and measuring resilience, a review of resilience assessment guides, AI applications in social-ecological systems, building a community of practice for applying resilience thinking, exploring pathway diversity, spatial regimes and leading indicators, and dealing with entrenched systems. 

A local field visit to Biosphere 2 proved both entertaining and insightful!

Published in July 2021, The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems, will be of great interest to students, lecturers and researchers working on SES. The highly anticipated book has been in development for several years, engaging 97 authors from across the globe and a team of editors who are leading experts in the field.

The long overdue handbook provides an introduction to SES research that includes its complexity-based foundations, before moving on to systematically present twenty-eight chapters of research methods specifically used in SES research under four main headings: Methods for data generation and systems scoping, Methods for knowledge co-production and effecting system change, Methods of analyzing systems - system components and linkages, Methods for anlysing systems - system dynamics. A final chapter offers a synthesis and looks toward emerging frontiers in SES research methods.

An open-access pdf version of the handbook is available for free and can be downloaded at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003021339.

Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs, who edited the book along with Alta de Vos, Rika Preiser, Hayley Clements, Kristine Maciejewski, and Maja Schlüter, presents an introduction to the handbook here on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZJBtBFLUew. 

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The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems. Edited by Reinette Biggs, Alta de Vos, Rika Preiser, Hayley Clements, Kristine Maciejewski, and Maja Schlüter. 2022. Routledge, New York, NY.