Panarchy is a conceptual framework to account for the dual, and seemingly contradictory, characteristics of all complex systems – stability and change. It is the study of how economic growth and human development depend on ecosystems and institutions, and how they interact. It is an framework, bringing together ecological, economic and social models of change and stability, to account for the complex interactions among both these different areas, and different scale levels (see Scale Levels).
Panarchy’s focus is on management of regional ecosystems, defined in terms of catchments, but it deals with the impact of lower, smaller, faster changing scale levels, as well as the larger, slower supra-regional and global levels. Its goal is to develop the simplest conceptual framework necessary to describe the twin dynamics of change and stability across both disciplines and scale levels.
Came across this on a Cool Tools podcast with futurist Leah Zaidi: my own elementary understanding of this is that it’s sort of a “Hero’s Journey” model of reality (which fully embraces reality’s inherent complexities). Fascinating concept; the whole article – and Zaidi’s website – is worth absorbing, as are the notes from the podcast.