Assignment on Sociology PDF

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Critical understanding of the principal concepts and theories.........................................................2
Resilience thinking......................................................................................................................2
Bioregionalism.............................................................................................................................5
Transforming agriculture: sustainable food.....................................................................................6
White Gum Valley and Apace.....................................................................................................6
Hilton Harvest community garden...............................................................................................8
Indigenous history and culture...................................................................................................11
Sustainable technologies............................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Time has come where humans must consider about the bioregional self-sufficiency. It can
be simply defined as a principle of meting the standards of the human needs when staying within
the resource constraint areas. This leads to prosperity and resiliency. A bioregional community
is built upon the ecological systems that are vital in the creation of the socio-ecological
territories. Resilience carries different meanings in different contexts, it offers the system to
absorb perturbation and still be able to vital functions and functions along with the identity
(Wiese 2016). This study will be based on the demonstrating a critical understanding of the
principle theories of bioregionalism and resilience thinking and it applicability at the regional
level. Furthermore, it will provide a critical account of the information collected during the field
trip.
Critical understanding of the principal concepts and theories
Resilience thinking
Resilience is a concept which was originally introduced by the Holling in the year 1973
and this helps in understanding the capacity of the ecosystems along with the alternative
attractors so that the original condition persists. In certain field the term resilience is used
narrowly to signify the return to an equilibrium state after perturbation. Over the past few
decades no subject has gained traction like the resilience. Resiliency means the capability of a
system to deal with all the changes and still have the capacity to develop. A lot of research has
been carried out in the several fields that promote resiliency in systems. This may include the
city, a coastal area, or a landscape. A resilient approach towards the sustainability takes into
account of how a system will be built that can take into cope with any unexpected changes. This

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approach goes beyond the considering people as the external drivers towards the ecosystem and
it also takes into account of how humans interact with the biosphere (land, air and water)
(Bahadur and Tanner 2014). One of the vital ways of interacting with the biosphere is through
the interacting and being dependent on the biosphere and also by utilizing the different services
of the ecosystem. The different types of the ecosystem services include the regulation of climate,
crops to nourish oneself, drinking and cooking, cultural and spiritual connection with the
ecosystem. While it is also important to mention that the humans also change their biosphere
through the different types of the activities like building roads, cities and agriculture. Thus,
resilient thinking incorporates the how humans interact with the nature and also understanding
the socio-ecological systems. The socio-ecological systems can be managed to ensure the
resilient and the sustainable supply of the essential ecosystem services upon which the entire
humanity depends. Sociological resilience is a term which is described as a resiliency about the
nature and the people and the also the interdependent systems. This fact is true for the
surrounding ecosystems and he local communities, however the activities of the humans on earth
has led to the creation of issues at the global scales. This makes it difficult to separate the social
and the ecological entities and explain them separately and also makes it hard for the analytical
processes (Sellberg et al. 2018).
There are seven different principles of resilience thinking and it includes maintaining
diversity and redundancy, managing connectivity, managing feedbacks and slow variables,
fostering the complex adaptive systems thinking, and encourage learning
(Stockholmresilience.org 2019).
 The first principle is maintaining redundancy and diversity- systems consists of the
different types of the components like sources of knowledge, actors, species and these

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components are more resilient in comparison to the system. Therefore, it leads to
redundancy and it insurers that some components will compensate for the loss of others
(Walker and Salt 2012).
 The second principle is managing connectivity- connectivity can both be termed as bad or
good. The systems that are connected well will definitely recover from the disturbances
quickly. However, if a system is connected overtly then it might lead to the spread of
disturbances. The most positive aspect of the landscape connectivity is that it contributes
to the maintenance of the biodiversity (Stockholmresilience.org 2019).
 The third principle is management of feedback and the variables- managing the feedbacks
and the variables are essential so as to ensure that the ecosystem produces the essential
services. Therefore, it is important to mention that is the systems moves to a different
regime or configuration then it can be extremely difficult to reverse. While feedbacks ate
the two-way connectors that exists between the variables and it can either dampen or
reinforce the change (Xu, Marinova and Guo 2015).
 The fourth principle is fostering a complex adaptive system thinking- complex adaptive
systems approach means that it is essential to accept the social ecological systems and the
several connections that are occurring at the different levels. It also means accepting the
uncertainty and the unpredictability and at the same time acknowledging the several other
perspectives. However, there is only a small number of the evidences that says that CAS
is directly influenced by the resilience of a system (Walker and Salt 2012).
 The fifth principle is to encourage learning- the social-ecological systems are in a
constant state of development and due to this there is a need to revise the previous

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knowledge and at the same time simulate learning. The collaborative process also can be
helpful.
 The sixth principle is to broaden participation- the well and broad functioning
participation also have a range of advantages. A well-functioning and a well-informed
group have the capability of building trust based on the shared understanding and shared
knowledge that has both the basic ingredients for the collective action (Eraydin 2013).
Bioregionalism
Bio-regionalism can be described as a movement that was initially born in the year 1970.
Bioregionalism is a way through which the surroundings can be reimagined. Bioregionalism can
be defined as a way of understanding a place where a human resides and the main is to live in
that place respectfully and sustainably. Bioregionalism also takes into account of the identifying
and representing the history of a place so that the people can live within the laws of nature.
Rather it can be said that this concept is new only for those people that came out of the western
technological and industrial heritage. Therefore, it can be said that bioregionalism is considered
as a common sense and a reality for the people that are living within a land for thousands of
years and it remains same for the majority of the human beings (Church, S.P., 2014).
Bioregionalism connects the humans with the living biosphere through the regions and the places
that humans live. Thus, bioregionalism acknowledges that humans not just live in the
countryside, towns, cities but they also live in eco-regions, ecosystems, and watershed. It is
important to re-evaluate the attitude of the common people towards the traditional knowledge
over the world and it also requires maintenance of the awareness at the global level as well. This
is done to put an emphasis on how to participate in the practices and rituals, and the immediate