7. Transformability

The evolution of ecosystems after sustaining an impact is interpreted, in general, by means of the adaptive cycle theory. Its study allows us to obtain tools to analyse the changes in socio-economic systems (SES), because all Complex Adaptive Systems show thresholds that lead to a collapse and the phases of the adaptive cycle are a logical sequence of reorganisation and improvement in systems that are sustainable. Once the SES reach sustainability, the adaptive cycle will explain its evolutionary dynamics, adapting to the changing conditions of the environment. Resilience is a pivotal concept in the comprehension of sustainability of nature. There is a generalised agreement about what the concept of resilience means when applied to natural systems. K. S. Holling gave a definition of resilience in 1973 that is the reference: “The capacity of an ecosystem to absorb and utilize or even benefit from perturbations and changes that attain it, and so to persist without a qualitative change in the system’s structure”. However, when the concept is applied to SESs the agreement disappears, and becomes enormously complicated when it is applied to very different sciences. Among those who study the sustainability of SESs we find expressions of resilience that escape the previous agreement. For this reason it is necessary to find another concept (approach) that enables us to study the dynamics of SESs in the pursuit of sustainability. The pertinent study is that of the capacity for transformation, of transformability. But this study lacks any foundation if we do not define the factors that determine such a capacity.