Resilience: A Social Science Approach

Seminar summary: Resilience is a buzzword often used, so far, however, the concept has been vague. This is a problem from an academic point of view. Without a clear definition of the concept of resilience, its analytical value as an independent or dependent variable is limited. In this talk Dr Matt Qvortrup (Academic Director at the Resilience Centre, Cranfield University) outlined a preliminary approach to remedying this problem. He did so by developing a social science typology of resilience. Drawing on insights from sociology, political science and social theory, Dr Qvortrup suggested how ‘resilience’ can studied, and how an understanding of the concept can contribute to solving ‘real world’ social problems, such as terrorism, natural disasters etc.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Matt Qvortrup earned his doctorate from Brasenose College, University of Oxford, in 1999. Since then his has been a senior civil servant in the Home Office. His main career has been as an academic. He has taught at the LSE, and was a Senior Research Fellow at UCL before taking up his current post as Senior Lecturer at the Resilience Centre, Cranfield University. Dr Qvortrup has published widely in academic journals and is the author of five books. His forthcoming book, From Bullets to Ballots will be published by Pennsylvania University Press later this year.