Du Plessis, C2009-04-142009-04-142008-09Du Plessis, C. 2008. Understanding cities as social-ecological systems. World Sustainable Building Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 21-25 September 2008, pp 9978646503721http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3306World Sustainable Building Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 21-25 September 2008This paper builds on earlier ecological approaches to urban development, as well as more recent thinking in the fields of sustainability science, resilience thinking and complexity theory, to propose a conceptual framework for understanding cities as social-ecological systems (SESs) as a point of departure for further dialogue in the study of urban sustainability. It proposes that cities should be understood as (1) complex, adaptive systems that are (2) integrated across spheres of matter, life and human social and cultural phenomena (or mind), (3) are structured as nested systems that allows interaction across scales and levels of organisation, and (4) that what differentiates cities (and SESs) from other types of ecosystems is the introduction of abstract thought and symbolic construction that allows for considered novelty, communication of ideas across time and space, and therefore learning, and reflexive thinkingenSocio-ecologyCitiesEcosystemResilienceUrban developmentComplexity theoryWorld Sustainable Building Conference 2008Conference PresentationDu Plessis, C. (2008). Understanding cities as social-ecological systems. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3306Du Plessis, C. "Understanding cities as social-ecological systems." (2008): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3306Du Plessis C, Understanding cities as social-ecological systems; 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3306 .TY - Conference Presentation AU - Du Plessis, C AB - This paper builds on earlier ecological approaches to urban development, as well as more recent thinking in the fields of sustainability science, resilience thinking and complexity theory, to propose a conceptual framework for understanding cities as social-ecological systems (SESs) as a point of departure for further dialogue in the study of urban sustainability. It proposes that cities should be understood as (1) complex, adaptive systems that are (2) integrated across spheres of matter, life and human social and cultural phenomena (or mind), (3) are structured as nested systems that allows interaction across scales and levels of organisation, and (4) that what differentiates cities (and SESs) from other types of ecosystems is the introduction of abstract thought and symbolic construction that allows for considered novelty, communication of ideas across time and space, and therefore learning, and reflexive thinking DA - 2008-09 DB - ResearchSpace DP - CSIR KW - Socio-ecology KW - Cities KW - Ecosystem KW - Resilience KW - Urban development KW - Complexity theory KW - World Sustainable Building Conference 2008 LK - https://researchspace.csir.co.za PY - 2008 SM - 978646503721 T1 - Understanding cities as social-ecological systems TI - Understanding cities as social-ecological systems UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3306 ER -