Abstract:International audienceA fashionable concept, resilience is now a must in both academic research and management. However, its polysemy nourishes many debates on its uses, heuristics and operational relevance. The purpose of this article is not to bring these debates to a close. Starting from a cross-disciplinary state of the art, we point out the incompatibilities between certain meanings and uses of the term. These inconsistencies raise theoretical issues, leading some researchers to reject the term for that m… Show more
“…Not all potential users of the term are happy with this situation, and some feel that adoption of the term, or perhaps the concept, has done more harm than good. Thus, Comfort et al (2001), Park (2011 and Reghezza-Zitt et al (2012) are all suspicious that resilience is being used as little more than a fashionable buzz-word.…”
Abstract. This paper examines the development over historical time of the meaning and uses of the term resilience. The objective is to deepen our understanding of how the term came to be adopted in disaster risk reduction and resolve some of the conflicts and controversies that have arisen when it has been used. The paper traces the development of resilience through the sciences, humanities, and legal and political spheres. It considers how mechanics passed the word to ecology and psychology, and how from there it was adopted by social research and sustainability science. As other authors have noted, as a concept, resilience involves some potentially serious conflicts or contradictions, for example between stability and dynamism, or between dynamic equilibrium (homeostasis) and evolution. Moreover, although the resilience concept works quite well within the confines of general systems theory, in situations in which a systems formulation inhibits rather than fosters explanation, a different interpretation of the term is warranted. This may be the case for disaster risk reduction, which involves transformation rather than preservation of the "state of the system". The article concludes that the modern conception of resilience derives benefit from a rich history of meanings and applications, but that it is dangerous -or at least potentially disappointing -to read to much into the term as a model and a paradigm.
Sagitta in lapidem numquam figitur, interdum resiliens percutit dirigentem.
“…Not all potential users of the term are happy with this situation, and some feel that adoption of the term, or perhaps the concept, has done more harm than good. Thus, Comfort et al (2001), Park (2011 and Reghezza-Zitt et al (2012) are all suspicious that resilience is being used as little more than a fashionable buzz-word.…”
Abstract. This paper examines the development over historical time of the meaning and uses of the term resilience. The objective is to deepen our understanding of how the term came to be adopted in disaster risk reduction and resolve some of the conflicts and controversies that have arisen when it has been used. The paper traces the development of resilience through the sciences, humanities, and legal and political spheres. It considers how mechanics passed the word to ecology and psychology, and how from there it was adopted by social research and sustainability science. As other authors have noted, as a concept, resilience involves some potentially serious conflicts or contradictions, for example between stability and dynamism, or between dynamic equilibrium (homeostasis) and evolution. Moreover, although the resilience concept works quite well within the confines of general systems theory, in situations in which a systems formulation inhibits rather than fosters explanation, a different interpretation of the term is warranted. This may be the case for disaster risk reduction, which involves transformation rather than preservation of the "state of the system". The article concludes that the modern conception of resilience derives benefit from a rich history of meanings and applications, but that it is dangerous -or at least potentially disappointing -to read to much into the term as a model and a paradigm.
Sagitta in lapidem numquam figitur, interdum resiliens percutit dirigentem.
“…Elle est explicitement présentée comme une réponse au problème de la gestion de l'incertitude inhérente aux questions de développement durable et de changement climatique (Berkes, 2007). Elle est souvent décrite comme le « revers positif » de la vulnérabilité (Reghezza et Rufat, 2015), comme si le développement de l'une assurait mécaniquement la réduction de l'autre. Dans ce contexte, le couple ajustement/vulnérabilité disparaît au profit de l'adaptation/ résilience.…”
Section: L' « éTernel Retour » De L'adaptationunclassified
“…C'est l'un des huit objectifs de la stratégie territoriale élaborée par la DRIEE dans le cadre de l'application de la 35 Il y a deux façons d'éclairer cet apparent paradoxe : l'une, plus politique, en montrant que les gouvernements et les organisations internationales sont pris dans les contradictions néolibérales et cherchent à se décharger de leurs responsabilités sur les victimes car elles n'ont plus les moyens de leurs politiques (Reghezza et al, 2012 ;Chandler, 2014) ; l'autre, plus académique, en montrant que cette apparente fuite en avant découle de l'écran de fumée du « naturel » de l'adaptation et de la résilience qui contribue à une lecture rebiologisante des questions sociales, les deux notions constituant un « grand bond en arrière » par rapport au travail de dénaturalisation et de politisation des catastrophes qu'avaient permis l'ajustement et la vulnérabilité (Reghezza et Rufat, 2015).…”
Section: L' « éTernel Retour » De L'adaptationunclassified
“…Despite the recent attempts to develop a resilience paradigm and the impressive growth in the number of publications in the field, it should be noted that there is no consensus on the definition and adequacy of the resilience concept in the study of natural hazards and disaster reduction, as some of the skeptics pointed out (Reghezza-Zitt et al, 2012). A consensus on the definitions of resilience might not be possible, and MacAskill and Guthrie (2014) underline that it is even necessary to accept the idea of having several valid interpretations of the concept, which could facilitate transdisciplinary understanding of resilience in risk management.…”
While extensively employed in the mainstream literature focused on earth system science and sustainable development, the concepts of resilience, vulnerability and adaptation are still difficult to operationalize given the different conceptual frameworks proposed in various scientific fields, such as ecology, disaster reduction and global change. Although multiple points of view are, to a certain degree, beneficial to an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of the coupled human-environmental systems, there is a need to correlate the theoretical frameworks of the two sustainability pillars, resilience and vulnerability, in a coherent and efficient manner.
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