In the decades since the terms 'vulnerability', 'capacity' and 'resilience' became popular in both the disaster and development literatures, through natural and social science discourses, the terms have been applied to many development- and disaster-related policies and have been the subject of much debate and interpretation amongst various schools of thought. An illustrative review of the use of these terms is given followed by a critique of the main discourses, especially regarding the development and disaster policy advantages and disadvantages. Recommendations are given at different scales for closing some of the gaps identified, especially regarding the policy usefulness of certain theoretical approaches. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Purpose-This article sets out to address the response of traditional societies in facing natural hazards through the lens of the concept of resilience. Design/methodology/approach-This paper considers that resilient societies are those able to overcome the damage caused by the occurrence of natural hazards, either through maintaining their pre-disaster social fabric, or through accepting marginal or larger change in order to survive. The discussion is based on a review of the corpus of case studies available in the literature. Findings-The present article suggests that the capacity of resilience of traditional societies and the concurrent degree of cultural change rely on four factors, namely: the nature of the hazard, the pre-disaster socio-cultural context and capacity of resilience of the community, the geographical setting, and the rehabilitation policy set up by the authorities. These factors significantly vary in time and space, from one disaster to another. Practical implications-It is important to perceive local variations of the foregoing factors to better anticipate the capability of traditional societies to overcome the damage caused by the occurrence of natural hazards and therefore predict eventual cultural change. Originality/value-This article takes off from the previous vulnerability-driven literature by emphasizing the resilience of traditional societies.