Multiple Meanings of Resilience: Policy Discourses and Narratives in International Development

Katrina Brown Presentation Slides

Seminar summary: Resilience seemingly offers a set of ideas by which sustainability can be understood in linked social ecological systems. It is currently being used in many different fora and policy proclamations and emerging as a new ‘buzzword’. However, there is not consistency in how resilience is being applied. This presentation discussed two key issues: first it reviewed current policy discourses on resilience; how these ideas are being used and the actions they are promoting. Secondly, it looked at how these compare to emerging scientific ideas on resilience; and how resilience – incorporating complex system thinking with critical social analysis – might be used to transform how we understand and implement international development.