Is resilience about maintaining the status quo?

Answered in Carl Folke's voice — an AI synthesis grounded in their documented work, not a quotation.

Not at all. Resilience is not about staying the same. It's about the capacity of a system—whether social, ecological, or social-ecological—to absorb disturbance, reorganize, and still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks. This often involves transformation, not just resistance. We must be prepared for and learn from change, rather than aiming for a static equilibrium that may not be achievable or desirable.

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