Social network analysis: Which contributions to the analysis of agricultural systems resilience?

Agricultural systems around the world face the major challenge of the transition toward greater resilience. Given this, there is a need for understanding the processes undermining the resilience of agricultural systems, i.e., driving their capacity to adapt or transform in the face of perturbations of different kind. Social networks involving a diversity of stakeholders were found to play a key role in the resilience of various social-ecological systems, but their role in the resilience of agricultural systems remains understudied. This special issue features diverse contributions to understanding the role of social networks in the resilience of agricultural systems, which covers their capacity to evolve, innovate, adapt, and transform. These studies cover different conceptual and methodological approaches for the study of resilience mechanisms and social networks. They include a wide range of agricultural systems in different geographic areas and span over different space and time scales. In this editorial, we summarize this diversity of approaches and discuss their contribution to understanding the role of social networks in the resilience of agricultural systems. Based on this synthesis, we draw research perspectives for this research field.