Resilience and disaster risk reduction: an etymological journey

By David E. Alexander. 2013

1,178 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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.

Subfields: Civil and Structural Engineering, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/65bb17b6b591bbdb2ae5e2553955b7ddaaa2dc12

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Citations in the corpus

Resilience and robustness in policy design: a critical appraisal (2017, neutral): “The term ‘resilience’ is derived from the Latin terms resiliere or resilio for ‘bounce’ or ‘rebound’ (Alexander 2013).”
Resilience and why it matters for farm management (2014, methodology): “Holling used it in his seminal paper on systems ecology (Alexander, 2013).”
Measuring 'subjective resilience': using peoples' perceptions to quantify household resilience (2015, neutral): “Although references to resilience can be found in art, literature, law, psychology and engineering (Alexander, 2013), the use of the term within the ecological sciences has been particularly influential, where ‘resilience’ is used to understand and explain the different trajectories of ecological…”
A review of measuring ecosystem resilience to disturbance (2021, background): “It first depended on a simple formulation of ‘bounce back’ (Alexander 2013) before Holling (1973) introduced the concept of resilience to ecology.”
Community Resilience to Cyclone Disasters in Coastal Bangladesh (2016, background): “, [12,13,15,20,21]) as well as being assessed in practice with interventions to reduce vulnerability and to increase resilience (e.”
Mental fortitude training: An evidence-based approach to developing psychological resilience for sustained success (2016, background): “As Fletcher and Sarkar (2013) and others have pointed out (cf. Alexander, 2013; Gillespie, Chaboyer, & Wallis, 2007; McMurry, 2010; ReghezzaZitt, Rufat, Djament-Tran, Le Blanc, & Lhomme, 2012; Rogers, 2012), the meaning of the word resilience has evolved somewhat from its Latin origin of resilire…”
‘Subjective resilience’: using perceptions to quantify household resilience to climate extremes and disasters (2016, background): “Although references to resilience can be found across the arts, literature, law, psychology and engineering (Alexander 2013), the use of the term within the ecological sciences has been particularly influential, where ‘resilience’ is used to understand and explain the different trajectories of…”
Organizational response to adversity: Fusing crisis management and resilience research streams (2017, background): “That is, they circumvent major disruption to functioning before, during, and/or after adversity (Alexander, 2013; Bonanno, 2004; Bonanno, Brewin, Kaniasty, & La Greca, 2010; Sutcliffe & Vogus, 2003).”
Economic Vulnerability and Resilience to Natural Hazards: A Survey of Concepts and Measurements (2018, background): “Though a myriad of DRR literature declares Holling [24] as the first to coin the term, the work of Bacon in 1625 is the first known scientific use of the term in its present form, in the English language [23].”
A Critical Review of Scales Used in Resilience Research (2017, background): “In social sciences, economists label it as coping capacity and anthropologists termed it bounce back better (e.g. Alexander, 2013).”
Resilience assessment of complex urban systems to natural disasters: A new literature review (2018, neutral): “The term 'resilience' is derived from the Latin word 'resiliere', which means "to bounce back" [7,8].”
Resilience isn't the same for all: Comparing subjective and objective approaches to resilience measurement (2018, background): “Resilience has long conceptual histories spanning multiple academic disciplines (Alexander, 2013).”