ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9077-5242
Current Organisation
University of Bonn
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Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 07-08-2023
Abstract: The Anthropocene is characterized by the strengthening of planetary-scale interactions between the biophysical Earth system (ES) and human societies. This increasing social-ecological entanglement poses new challenges for studying possible future World-Earth system (WES) trajectories and World-Earth resilience defined as the capacity of the system to absorb and regenerate from anthropogenic stresses such as greenhouse gas emissions and land-use changes. The WES is currently in a non-equilibrium transitional regime of the early Anthropocene with arguably no plausible possibilities of remaining in Holocene-like conditions while sheltering up to 10 billion humans without risk of undermining the resilience of the ES. We develop a framework within which to conceptualize World-Earth resilience to examine this risk. Because conventional ball-and-cup type notions of resilience are h ered by the rapid and open-ended social, cultural, economic and technological evolution of human societies, we focus on the notion of ‘pathway resilience’, i.e. the relative number of paths that allow the WES to move from the currently occupied transitional states towards a safe and just operating space in the Anthropocene. We formalize this conceptualization mathematically and provide a foundation to explore how interactions between ES resilience (biophysical processes) and World system (WS) resilience (social processes) impact pathway resilience. Our analysis shows the critical importance of building ES resilience to reach a safe and just operating space. We also illustrate the importance of WS dynamics by showing how perceptions of fairness coupled with regional inequality affects pathway resilience. The framework provides a starting point for the analysis of World-Earth resilience that can be extended to more complex model settings as well as the development of quantitative planetary-scale resilience indicators to guide sustainable development in a stabilized ES.
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 21-06-2021
Abstract: Collective behavior provides a framework for understanding how the actions and properties of groups emerge from the way in iduals generate and share information. In humans, information flows were initially shaped by natural selection yet are increasingly structured by emerging communication technologies. Our larger, more complex social networks now transfer high-fidelity information over vast distances at low cost. The digital age and the rise of social media have accelerated changes to our social systems, with poorly understood functional consequences. This gap in our knowledge represents a principal challenge to scientific progress, democracy, and actions to address global crises. We argue that the study of collective behavior must rise to a “crisis discipline” just as medicine, conservation, and climate science have, with a focus on providing actionable insight to policymakers and regulators for the stewardship of social systems.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1039/C9SM01067J
Abstract: In this paper, we analysed the geometrical effects in ellipse assemblies over the range of packing fractions and elongations.
Publisher: AIP Publishing
Date: 07-2023
DOI: 10.1063/5.0147231
Abstract: Adaptivity is a dynamical feature that is omnipresent in nature, socio-economics, and technology. For ex le, adaptive couplings appear in various real-world systems, such as the power grid, social, and neural networks, and they form the backbone of closed-loop control strategies and machine learning algorithms. In this article, we provide an interdisciplinary perspective on adaptive systems. We reflect on the notion and terminology of adaptivity in different disciplines and discuss which role adaptivity plays for various fields. We highlight common open challenges and give perspectives on future research directions, looking to inspire interdisciplinary approaches.
Location: Germany
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Wolfram Barfuss.