Reframing Resilience Narratives for (Rural) Communities Using the Actantial Model

Luc Ampleman () and Walter Timo de Vries
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Luc Ampleman: Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Jagiellonian University, 30-387 Kraków, Poland
Walter Timo de Vries: Department Aerospace and Geodesy, School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 München, Germany

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-22

Abstract: As polities of all kinds are under pressure to achieve socio-environmental sustainability and resilience, existing assessment tools diagnosing communities’ vitality assets and vulnerabilities face challenges. These include grappling with incomplete data, incongruent models, and diverse indicator schemes from various scientific and professional domains. Moreover, these assessments draw upon multiple, sometimes unclear, and occasionally overlapping conceptualisations of ‘sustainability’ and ‘resilience’. This complexity makes monitoring system dynamics difficult, particularly in smaller rural communities with limited resources. This essay addresses this science policy and epistemic dilemma by proposing Greimas’s actantial model as a solution. The model, initially designed for understanding language and stories, is adapted to connect and integrate diverse data and indicator narratives across disciplines to inform policies at various levels of governance. This essay discusses recent debates on the conceptualisation of sustainability/resilience and its associated challenges, exploring how Greimas’s model may allow more constructive dialogue about conflicting views on resilience and sustainability. The model is presented as a planning template to foster communication across disciplines, social actors, and polities. The conclusion emphasises the model’s simplicity as a tool to overcome jargon, bridge communication gaps, and provide guidance for smaller rural communities facing resource constraints in assessing and implementing initiatives for sustainability and resilience.

Keywords: resilience theory; land use planning; rural sustainability; planning narrative; actantial model; Algirdas Julien Greimas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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