INTRO | HIGHLIGHTS | FEATURES | FOCUS | PERSPECTIVES | BIOS
PUTTING A ‘FACE’
ON RESILIENCE
How is resilience defined by its pioneers
and popularisers in the social sciences?
And what does it mean for how we use the
term universally to describe the world around us?
Social geographer Bernard Manyena states
that resilience has its roots in the Latin word
‘resilio’, meaning ‘to jump back’. He also
reminds us that there is dispute as to where
the term was originally used: ecology, physics,
psychology or psychiatry? He does however
aver that most of the literature is of the view
that the study of resilience evolved from
the discipline of psychology and psychiatry
in the 1940s and it is mainly accredited to
psychologists Norman Garmezy, Emmy Werner
and Ruth Smith. The term arose from studies
involving the exploration of the origins and
development of physical and mental disorders
in ‘at risk’ children of parents with identified
physical and mental disorders, a history of
inter-parental conflict, poverty, perinatal
problems or a combination thereof.
However, ‘what it is’ is still a subject
of considerable debate. What are its
determinants? How can it be measured,
maintained, and improved? How can it be
predicted? Can we identify the ingredients
of it and help in interventions to prepare
people to manifest resilience in given trying
circumstances?
Psychologist Ann S. Masten, who studies risk
and resilience in childhood development,
describes resilience as “a class of phenomena
characterised by good outcomes in spite of
serious threats to adaptation or development”.
It begs the question of what constitutes
‘serious threats’ and ‘good outcomes’. The
UK’s Cabinet Office, in its Draft Strategic
National Framework on Community Resilience
consultation document defines resilience as
“The capacity of an individual, community
or system to adapt in order to sustain an
acceptable level of function, structure, and
identity”. Community resilience is defined
in the same document as “Communities and
individuals harnessing local resources and
expertise to help themselves in an emergency,
in a way that complements the response of the
emergency services”. Sociologist Betty Hearne
Morrow in ‘Community Resilience: A Social
Justice Perspective’, develops this notion of
resilience further:
Physical resilience refers to the strength to
deal with an impact (s X