Resilience 2011: Leading Transformational Change

Hundreds of researchers, practitioners, and others gathered this past March in Phoenix, Arizona for the second international conference on resilience science and policy. Organized by Marty Anderies and Sander van der Leuw, and other Arizona State University faculty, the week-long conference focused on integrating understanding among three research communities, all of whom work in coupled social-ecological systems. The first is the resilience network, the second group develops sustainability science, and the third group studies innovation. The conference themes of adaptation and vulnerability, thresholds and regime shifts, knowledge and learning, governance and scales, development and resources, and transformation were addressed in hundreds of presentations. Although some of the presented studies and information has been published in this journal, we invite others to share their results in future submissions. We also would like to thank the organizers and participants for their efforts and hard work that resulted in this highly successful meeting.