Resilience and Disasters

Abstract

Resilience is a prominent topic in disaster research, attracting the attention of scholars in many disciplines. Resilience is also the goal of policymakers and experts in public and private sectors. Yet, while proponents advance resilience as an explanation for how systems fare in disaster, others advance arguments that resilience is a diversion from more useful research and efficacious policies. Some also argue that the focus on resilience forms a justification for government retreat from risk management in favor of seemingly more beneficial personal or market-oriented solutions. This chapter introduces the origins of present thinking about resilience and briefly traces its evolution through different fields of study. Next, it covers some of the prominent recent approaches to defining and measuring elements of resilience and recent debates on the topic. The authors conclude by arguing that resilience, though sometimes controversial, has provided a theoretical foundation for truly integrated interdisciplinary approaches to disaster.