Geographies of resilience: Challenges and opportunities of a descriptive concept. (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Weichselgartner, Juergen; Kelman, Ilan
• Is Part Of: Progress in human geography. Volume 39:Number 3(2015:Jun.)
• Page Start: 249
• Page End: 267
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: co-designing knowledge -- development geography -- disaster risk reduction -- resilience -- vulnerability; Human geography -- Periodicals; 304.2
• DOI: 10.1177/0309132513518834
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-1325

Abstract

In disaster science, policy and practice, the transition of resilience from a descriptive concept to a normative agenda provides challenges and opportunities. This paper argues that both are needed to increase resilience. We briefly outline the concept and several recent international resilience-building efforts to elucidate critical questions and less-discussed issues. We highlight the need to move resilience thinking forward by emphasizing structural social-political processes, acknowledging and acting on differences between ecosystems and societies, and looking beyond the quantitative streamlining of resilience into one index. Instead of imposing a technical-reductionist framework, we suggest a starting basis of integrating different knowledge types and experiences to generate scientifically reliable, context-appropriate and socially robust resilience-building activities.