Journal
ERDKUNDE
Volume 67, Issue 1, Pages 5-19Publisher
BOSS DRUCK MEDIEN GMBH
DOI: 10.3112/erdkunde.2013.01.02
Keywords
Social resilience; risk; vulnerability; adaptation; transformation; sustainable development
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Over the last decade, a growing body of literature has emerged which is concerned with the question of what form a promising concept of social resilience might take. In this article we argue that social resilience has the potential to be crafted into a coherent analytic framework that can build on scientific knowledge from the established concept of social vulnerability, and offer a fresh perspective on today's challenges of global change. Based on a critical review of recently published literature on the issue, we propose to define social resilience as being comprised of three dimensions: 1. Coping capacities - the ability of social actors to cope with and overcome all kinds of adversities; 2. Adaptive capacities - their ability to learn from past experiences and adjust themselves to future challenges in their everyday lives; 3. Transformative capacities - their ability to craft sets of institutions that foster individual welfare and sustainable societal robustness towards future crises. Viewed in this way, the search for ways to build social resilience - especially in the livelihoods of the poor and marginalized - is revealed to be not only a technical, but also a political issue.
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