Research on sustainable development tends to focus on risk and vulnerability. This article argues for a shift of emphasis from vulnerability to resilience. It develops a Multi‐layered social resilience framework emphasising the interactions between enabling factors and capacities operating at different levels of society. Enabling factors help to master threats by facilitating access to and transformation of capitals. Capacities lead social actors not only to cope with adverse conditions (reactive) but also to create responses (proactive) that increase competence and thus create pathways for mitigation. This approach redirects attention from managing risk to building resilience – an important prerequisite for sustainable development.
Adger, W.2003: Building resilience to promote sustainability: An agenda for coping with globalisation and promoting justice . IHDP Update2, 1–3 .
2.
Anderies, J.M. , Janssen, M.A. and Ostrom, E.2004: A framework to analyze the robustness of social-ecological systems from an institutional perspective . Ecology and Society9, 18 .
3.
Beck, U.1992: Risk society: Towards a new modernity. Sage Publications [originally publ. 1986].
4.
Berger, P.L. and Luckmann, C.1966: The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor Books .
5.
Berkes, F. , Colding, C. and Folke, C. eds, 2002: Navigating social‐ecological systems: Building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge University Press .
6.
Blaikie, P. , Cannon T. , Davis, I. and Wisner, B.1994: At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Routledge .
7.
Bourdieu, P.1984: Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Harvard University Press .
8.
Bourdieu, P.1986: The forms of capital. In Richardson, J.E. , editor, Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. Greenwood Press , 241–58.
9.
Caplan, P. ed. 2000: Risk revisited. Pluto Press .
10.
Carpenter, S. , Walker, B. , Anderies, M.J. and Abel, N.2001: From metaphor to measurement: Resilience of what to what?Ecosystems4, 765–81 .
11.
Chambers, R.1989: Vulnerability, coping and policy . IDS‐Bulletin20(2), 1–7 .
12.
Department for International Development (DfID). 2000: Sustainable Livelihood guidance sheets. 4.8 Methods, vulnerability context. DfID .
13.
Douglas, M.1985: Risk acceptability according to the social sciences. Russel Sage .
14.
Folke, C. , Carpenter, S. , Elmqvist, T. , Gunderson, L. , Holling, C.S. , Walker, B. , Bengtsson, J. , Berkes, F. , Colding, J. , Danell, K. , Falkenmark, M. , Gordon, L. , Kasperson, R. , Kautsky, N. , Kinzig, A. , Levin, S. , Goran‐Mäler, K. , Moberg, F. , Ohlsson, L. , Olsson, O. , Ostrom, E. , Reid, W. , Rockström, J. , Savenjie, H. and Svedin, U.2002: Resilience and sustainable development: Building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations. Scientific background paper commissioned by the Environmental Advisory Council of the Swedish Government. International Council for Science .
15.
Garmezy, N.1976: Vulnerable and invulnerable children: Theory, research and intervention. American Psychological Association .
16.
Giddens, A.1979: Central problems in social theory. Action, structure and contradiction in social analysis. University of California Press .
17.
Giddens, A.1984: The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Polity Press .
18.
Glavovic, B. , Scheyvens, R. and Overton, J. 2003: Waves of adversity, layers of resilience: Exploring the sustainable livelihoods approach . In Storey, D. , Overton, J. and Nowak, B. , editors, Proceedings of the Third Biennial Conference of the Aatearoa New Zealand International Development Studies Network (DevNet) ‘Contesting development: Pathways to better practice’, 5–7 December 2002, Palmerston North: Massey University, 289–93 .
19.
Holling, C.S.1973: Resilience and stability of ecological systems . Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics4, 1–23 .
20.
Hurni, H. , Wiesmann, U. , Pascal, A. and Messerli, P.2004: Initiating research for mitigating syndromes of global change in different contexts. In Hurni, H. and Wiesmann, U. , editors, Oriented research partnerships. Perspectives of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North‐South, University of Bern , Vol. 1. Geographica Bernensia, 11–30.
21.
Janssen, M.A. and Ostrom, E.2006: Empirically based, agent‐based models . Ecology and Society11(2), 37 .
22.
Luthar, S.S. , Cicchetti, D. and Becker, B.2000: The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work . Child Development71(3), 543–62 .
23.
Luthar, S.S. ed. 2003: Resilience and vulnerability: Adaptation in the context of childhood adversities. Cambridge University Press .
24.
Macamo, E.2003: Nach der Katastrophe ist die Katastrophe: Die 2000er äberschwemmung in der dörflichen Wahrnehmung in Mosambik. In Clausen, L. , Geenen, E.M. and Macamo, E. , editors, Entsetzliche soziale Prozesse. Theorie und Empirie der Katastrophen. Lit, 167–84.
25.
Macamo, E. and Neubert, D.2004: Die Flug in Mosambik: Unterschiedliche Deutung von Krisen und Katastrophen durch Bauern und Nothilfeapparat. In Schareika, N. and Bierschenk, T. , editors, Lokales Wissen: Sozialwissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Lit., 185–208.
26.
Masten, A.S.2001: Ordinary magic. Resilience processes in development . American Psychologist56(3), 227–38 .
27.
Obrist, B.2006: Struggling for health in the city: An anthropological inquiry of health, vulnerability and resilience in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Peter Lang .
28.
Ortner, S.B.1984: Theory in anthropology since the sixties . Comparative Studies in Society and History26, 126–66 .
29.
Ortner, S.B.2006: Anthropology and social theory. Duke University Press .
30.
Pelling, M.2003: The vulnerability of cities: Natural disasters and social resilience. Earthscan .
31.
Schoon, M.2005: A short historical overview of the concepts of resilience, vulnerability, and adaptation. Workshop in political theory and policy analysis, Indiana University , working paper W05‐4.
32.
Ungar, M.2005: Introduction. In Ungar, M. ed., Hand‐book for working with children and youth: Pathways to resilience across cultures and contexts. Sage Publications , xv–xxxix.
33.
UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction). 2004: Terminology: Basic terms of disaster risk reduction. Available at http://www.unisdr.org/eng/library/lib-terminology-eng%20home.htm, last accessed on 10 August 2009.
34.
Vogel, C.2006: Foreword: Resilience, vulnerability and adaptation: A cross‐cutting theme in the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change . Global Environmental Change16, 235–36 .
35.
Walker, B. and Salt, D.2006: Resilience thinking: Sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world. Island Press .
36.
Werner, E.E. and Smith, R.S.1982: Vulnerable but invincible: A longitudinal study of resilient children and youth. McGraw‐Hill .
