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Resilience and Sustainability

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Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education

Definition

Resilience and sustainability are abstract concepts which despite their similarities are unique in their definition and application. Sustainability is a normative concept focusing on the balanced integration of environmental, economic, and social development, while resilience is descriptive concept reflecting a system’s ability to adapt and or recover from shocks.

Introduction

Despite their widespread usage, resilience and sustainability are both highly abstract concepts with a wide range of interpretations. In the broadest definition, sustainability is a normative concept reflecting the ideas of intra- and inter-generational equity, whereby the pursuit of development of the present shall not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The primary focus of sustainability is the balanced integration between environmental, social, and economic pillars of development. Pressing environmental challenges include, for example, biodiversity loss, water...

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Correspondence to Ali Kharrazi .

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Kharrazi, A., Savaget, P., Kudo, S. (2019). Resilience and Sustainability. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_92-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_92-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63951-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63951-2

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