The Social Burden of Resilience: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

We examine the social burden associated with resilience to environmental shocks in pre-modern societies. We argue that analyses of state-level interventions to mitigate the consequences of catastrophic events tend to isolate these measures from their larger social contexts and thereby overlook the uneven distribution of their burden across different groups. We use three cases of pre-modern societies in the northeastern Mediterranean - the sixth century Roman Empire, the tenth century Byzantine Empire, and the sixteenth century Ottoman Empire. We demonstrate how the adaptive processes that reinforced resilience at the state level incurred different burdens for those at lower levels of the social hierarchy. We found that some groups sustained losses while others gained unexpected benefits in the context of temporary systemic instability. We also found that although elites enjoyed enhanced buffers against the adverse effects in comparison with non-elites, this did not consistently guarantee them a better outcome. We conclude that the differentiated burden of resilience could in some cases entrench existing political or economic configurations, and in other cases, overturn them. Our case studies indirectly address the pressing issue of environmental justice.

Climate and society in European history

“…Wetter climate conditions were found to benefit yields in Sicily (Sadori et al, 2016) and the eastern Mediterranean region (Xoplaki et al, 2016, 2018), except excessive precipitation (Alfani, 2018; Bauch, 2016; Enzi, Becherini, & Sghedoni, 2019). According to White (2011) and Izdebski, Mordechai, and White (2018), the combination of cold weather and droughts seems to have created the most unfavorable conditions for crop cultivation and viticulture in Mediterranean Europe. At higher elevations, cold extremes alone were the main threat to crops and viticulture in the western (Barriendos, 2005) and eastern (Mrgić, 2011) Mediterranean.…”

The power to define resilience in social–hydrological systems: Toward a power‐sensitive resilience framework

“…In cases where resilience for different social groups is a zero-sum game, there are trade-offs where strengthening the resilience of one group implies reducing the resilience of other groups. Here, the question becomes who bears the cost of resilience projects and "at whose expense" resilience is strengthened (Fabinyi, Evans, & Foale, 2014;Izdebski, Mordechai, & White, 2018;O'Brien, Hayward, & Berkes, 2009). For the historical cases of the sixth century Roman Empire, the 10th century Byzantine Empire, and the 16th century Ottoman Empire, adaptive processes at the state level strengthened resilience but resulted in a differentiated burden of resilience for elites and nonelites (Izdebski et al, 2018).…”

“…Here, the question becomes who bears the cost of resilience projects and “at whose expense” resilience is strengthened (Fabinyi, Evans, & Foale, ; Izdebski, Mordechai, & White, ; O'Brien, Hayward, & Berkes, ). For the historical cases of the sixth century Roman Empire, the 10th century Byzantine Empire, and the 16th century Ottoman Empire, adaptive processes at the state level strengthened resilience but resulted in a differentiated burden of resilience for elites and nonelites (Izdebski et al, ). Even when enacting positive change, “change can sometimes be a zero‐sum game, meaning that certain actors benefit at the expense of others … from a governance perspective, the potentially contentious nature of this change can be disguised by the vagueness of resilience terminology” (de Milliano et al, , p. 21).…”

Surviving Maria from Dominica: Memory, Displacement and Bittersweet Beginnings

“…Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the "resilience" trope has come to dominate disaster mitigation, policy and scholarship (Barrios 2016, 29;Izdebski, Mordechai and White 2018). In the months after Maria, the government announced its plans to make "Dominica the first climate resilient nation in the world"-a commitment commended by such visiting dignitaries as the UN Secretary General, Prince Charles and Bill Clinton.…”