Managing uncertainty is a critical element in addressing global change challenges. It is becoming more clear that traditional risk-based approaches are of limited use given the level of uncertainty associated with global change.

There are, however, many examples of governance systems that have effectively coped with high levels of uncertainty. In so doing, however, it is likely that these governance systems induce new vulnerabilities to novel shocks and directed change.

In this talk Professor Anderies will address a few cases of such “robustness-vulnerability" trade-offs, and attempt to draw out some themes that may be of use to navigate them in the future.

About Professor Anderies
Marty Anderies´ research interests focus on developing an understanding of how ecological, behavioral, social and institutional factors generate vulnerabilities and/or enhance resilience and robustness in social-ecological systems.

His work relies on combining insights from present-day, historical and archaeological examples of social-ecological systems with a range of analytical techniques and laboratory experiments to study how individual decision-making processes influence social and environmental outcomes.

Other areas of interest include economic growth, demographics and theoretical ecology.

Anderies is affiliated with the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, the Global Institute of Sustainability and the IGERT program in Urban Ecology.