The 5Rs of Deep Adaptation

The 5Rs of Deep Adaptation is a framework that I developed to guide the reflections and conversations of individuals, organisations and communities when they aim to reduce suffering as they face, or experience, societal collapse. I developed it after I concluded that we were not talking about our personal concerns and conclusions about collapse because we did not know how to talk about it. That meant conversations were often abruptly ended with phrases like “we can’t conclude that or we will have nothing to work towards.” I thought that when our conversations stopped like that, we were losing the time and opportunity to reduce suffering and save more of society and the natural world. 

Over the years, the framework has helped many of us to talk collapse. Some or all of the 5R framework has been used in many communities around the world, from environmental initiatives to psychotherapy groups, from faith-based groups to activist movements, and from educational institutions to those analysing business futures. There are even academic papers that reflect on the use of the framework in different settings [1]. So in this article I will summarise the framework and then invite the creatives amongst you to share your depictions of the framework graphically. 

Subscribe / Support / Essays

Here are the 5Rs, the guiding questions they pose, and quotes from Breaking Together that illuminate each principle. 

1. Resilience

Question: What do we value most that we want to keep, and how?

“Rather than resilience as the ability to keep going in the same direction in the face of adversity, I came to see resilience as the capacity to remake ourselves through a crisis, drawing on what we most value.”
— Breaking Together

This R is about identifying and then holding onto what matters most – such as community, care, rights, solidarity, meaning – rather than the conveniences and behaviours that require unsustainable systems. 

2. Relinquishment

Question: What do we need to let go of so as not to make matters worse?

“Relinquishment is about releasing our grip on ways of life, ideas of progress, and identities that are not only unsustainable but are harming us.”
— Breaking Together

It involves letting go – of fossil-fueled comforts, economic myths, toxic identities, and destructive habits.

3. Restoration

Question: What could we bring back to help us as difficult situations unfold?

“Many of the skills and relationships that will help us weather the storm are not new inventions, but old ways we need to remember.”
— Breaking Together

Here, we can invite consideration of traditional knowledge, community practices, and relational ways of being that industrial society eroded.

4. Reconciliation

Question: With whom and with what could I make peace with to lessen suffering?

“Reconciliation is about being with the pain of what is lost and broken, and allowing it to break us open to deeper connection.”
— Breaking Together

Here, we can face the grief and existential fears associated with collapse and make peace with limits and loss, to centre our active compassion, even amid breakdown.

5. Reclamation

Question: What can we reclaim about our lives, communities, economies and nature from dominant systems and beliefs?

“Reclamation is about taking back our lives, our dignity, our communities, and our connection to nature from the systems that have co-opted them.”
— Breaking Together

This R is about agency, power and dignity – reclaiming meaning-making, local control, spiritual autonomy, and relational depth from the alienation of modernity and global capitalism.

I introduced the first 3Rs – resilience, relinquishment and restoration – in my 2018 paper Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy [2]. Soon after, I added the fourth, Reconciliation, partly in response to a fear-based rush I was noticing in some people and groups who had become collapse aware. In Breaking Together [3] I added the 5th R of Reclamation, partly in response to noticing how some people’s dependence on imperial systems of sustenance and meaning-making meant they were ignoring opportunities for reducing complicity and resisting harms. 

The best source for the Deep Adaptation framework is Breaking Together, as it provides a comprehensive discussion from its originator (yours truly). The framework is not prescriptive, so if anyone claims to work on ‘Deep Adaptation’, you might ask them if they have read the book that elaborates on the framework. There is a free download, and it has been coming out in a variety of languages thanks to awesome volunteers in the Deep Adaptation movement around the world. 

Now for the fun part: either developed manually or by using AI, I’d welcome seeing some visual depictions of the 5R framework. For instance, there could be 5 petals, with each containing the name of the R and the relevant reflection question. Once you have developed an image, please share it on your favourite social media platform and tag me so that I can see your creation and share it. I am currently on Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook and LinkedIn with the name Jem Bendell.

Footnotes

[1] Some of the academic papers that reflect on the use of the ‘Deep Adaptation’ framework in different settings:

Experimental retreat and workshop using the deep adaptation framework | Multidiszciplináris Tudományok

The end of tourism? Contemplations of collapse | Emerald Insight

What do you value? How valuing time leads to deeper environmental engagement in: Personal Sustainability Practices

Urban Space and Everyday Adaptations: Rethinking commons, co-living, and activism for the Anthropocene City | SPOOL

Venezuela, Oil and Climate Change: Overcoming Nostalgia | SpringerLink

[2] Deep adaptation: a map for navigating climate tragedy – Insight 

[3] Breaking Together: A freedom-loving response to collapse: 9781399954471: Bendell, Jem: Books

Join the Metacrisis Meetings / Read Jem’s book Breaking Together  / Browse the latest posts / See the Scholars’ Warning / Receive Jem’s Biannual Bulletin / Receive the Deep Adaptation Review / Watch some of Jem’s talks / Ask JemBot a question