Relational dimensions for transformation and resilience: exploring inspiration, social capital, and learning in landscape-based initiatives in South Africa

Landscape restoration has been reinterpreted from a technical project-based intervention to an intentional ongoing process transforming social-ecological systems. The PhD explored the challenges and opportunities of implementing relational thinking and plural valuation to support such an approach to landscape sustainability. The research was designed as a transdisciplinary in-depth case study with Living Lands, a not-for-profit company based in the Eastern Cape. Findings confirmed that slow, embedded, and reflexive processes support sensemaking and social resilience for initiatives, but require careful consideration of synergies, trade-offs, and changes within and between the landscape context and the roles, norms, and expectations of landscape restoration practices, funding, policies, and research.<br>