The concept of resilience revisited

Siambabala Bernard Manyena Research Associate, Disaster and Development

Centre, School of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, UK

The intimate connections between disaster recovery by and the resilience of affected communities
have become common features of disaster risk reduction programmes since the adoption of The
Hyogo Framework for Action 20052015. Increasing attention is now paid to the capacity of
disaster-affected communities to bounce back or to recover with little or no external assistance
following a disaster. This highlights the need for a change in the disaster risk reduction work
culture, with stronger emphasis being put on resilience rather than just need or vulnerability.
However, varied conceptualisations of resilience pose new philosophical challenges. Yet achieving
a consensus on the concept remains a test for disaster research and scholarship.This paper reviews
the concept in terms of definitional issues, the role of vulnerability in resilience discourse and its
meaning, and the differences between vulnerability and resilience. It concludes with some of the
more immediately apparent implications of resilience thinking for the way we view and prepare
for disasters.

Keywords: disaster resilience, disaster risk reduction, vulnerability

Introduction
Over the past ten years, work on disasters has increasingly focused on the capacity of
affected communities to recover with little or no external assistance. This requires a
stronger emphasis on approaches to risk reduction and humanitarian and development
work that put resilience, rather than just need or vulnerability, at the nucleus of the
debate (IFRC, 2004). Current thinking on resilience is a product of theoretical and
practical constructs that have seen the refining and reshaping of the disaster paradigm
over the past three decades. The history of its application is not rosy; it is full of con
testations, especially regarding its affinity with and lucid usage by a multiplicity of
disciplines. Consequently, it is instructive to explore the concept within the context
of the ongoing search for the most appropriate disaster risk reduction framework.
Resilience is derived from the Latin word resilio, meaning to jump back (Klein,
Nicholls and Thomalla, 2003). The field in which it was originally used, though, is
still contested: some say ecology (Batabyal, 1998), while others say physics (Van der
Leeuw and Leygonie, 2000). In the sphere of ecology, it gained currency following
the 1973 release of Hollings seminal work, entitled Resilience and Stability of Ecological
Systems (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987; Levin et al., 1998; Adger, 2000; Van der Leeuw
and Leygonie, 2000; Stockholm Environmental Institute, 2004). Most of the literature,
however, states that the study of resilience evolved from the disciplines of psychology
and psychiatry in the 1940s, and it is mainly accredited to Norman Garmezy, Emmy
Werner and Ruth Smith (Waller, 2001; Johnson and Wielchelt, 2004). It materialised

Disasters, 2006, 30(4): 433450. The Author(s). Journal compilation Overseas Development Institute, 2006.
Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

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as a result of efforts to understand the aetiology and development of psychopathology,

most particularly in studies of children at risk of psychopathological disorders due to
parental mental illness, perinatal problems, inter-parental conflict, poverty or a combi
nation of the above (Masten, 1999; Rolf, 1999). The pioneers in the study of resilience
were interested in analysing risks and the negative effects of adverse life events on
children, such as divorce and traumatic stressors (abuse, neglect and war, for example).
These studies saw the emergence of terms such as resilience,stress-resistance and invul
nerability. Of the three constructs, resilience has become one of the most disputed.
Today, resilience is being applied in a number of fields, especially disaster manage
ment. The adoption, on 22 January 2005, of The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005
2015also known as The Hyogo Declarationby the United Nations International
Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is a positive move. Increased atten
tion will be paid to what affected communities can do for themselves and how best to
strengthen them (IFRC, 2004).Yet, if the concept of resilience is to lead to a new way
of tackling disasters and provide policy options, there is a need to address the philo
sophical questions that continue to blur the concept. To enhance resilience it is neces
sary to have a good initial understanding of what it is, its determinants (Klein et al.,
1998), and how it can be measured, maintained and improved (Klein, Nicholls and
Thomalla, 2003).
This paper focuses mainly on four aspects of resilience: the definitional issue of resil
ience; whether resilience is the opposite of vulnerability; how resilience applies to
people and structures; and the implications of the deconstruction of the term for the
way we view disasters and disaster risk reduction.

Methodology
Background information for this article came from primary and secondary sources.
The primary data were collected through personal communication and group e-mails;
requests were directed at those who have distinguished themselves in disaster scholar
ship and research. Many of the people contacted sent detailed responses, involving, in
some instances, pages of comment on the subject.

Disaster resilience: a paradigm or expression?

The entrance of the term resilience into disaster discourse could be seen as the birth
of a new culture of disaster response.The outcomes of the 2005 World Conference on
Disaster Reduction (WCDR) confirmed that the concept has gradually found more
space in both theoretical and practical terms in a wide range of disaster risk reduction
discourse areas and in some interventions. Phrases like sustainable and resilient commu
nities, resilient livelihoods and building community resilience have become common in
journal articles and programme documents. However, while some would refer to it as
a new paradigm (McEntire et al., 2002), others see it as more of an expression, compli
menting use of other disaster terms, such as vulnerability or risk.

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The theoretical base of disaster resilience centres on a range of studies. Bradely and
Grainger (2004) recommend a social resilience model in which actors switch from
performance to survival strategies when the perceived severity of constraints exceeds
a critical threshold.Tobin (1999) suggests a composite sustainable and resilient framework
of analysis for communities in hazardous environments. Paton, Smith and Violanti
(2000) propose a risk management model for disaster stress, while Paton and Johnston
(2001) advocate a model of resilience to hazard effects. Meanwhile, Mallak (1998),
Kendra and Wachtendorf (2003) and Davis (2004) have all put forth some principles
of resilience.
The work of McEntire et al. (2002) traces the evolution of disaster paradigms, although
without a timeline, from comprehensive disaster management through disaster-resistant
community, disaster-resilient communities and sustainable development and sustain
able hazards mitigation, and invulnerable development, to comprehensive vulnerability
management.The intention here, though, is not to get into a debate on the character
istics of the paradigm, the resilience paradigm, as it has become known, which arguably
falls short of warranting such a label.The concept of resilience has gained currency in
the absence of philosophical dimensions and clarity of understanding, definition, sub
stance, and most importantly, its applicability in disaster management and sustainable
development theory and practice.
There is a danger of current usage extending further into the practitioner end of
disaster and development work in order to describe the quality of end products of
disaster-risk reduction interventions. Some scholars contacted during the information-
gathering process for this paper were of the opinion that (disaster) resilience can not
necessarily be viewed as a new way of looking at disasters as we have done much of this
before1 and therefore it is not new conceptually.The only new thing is the inclusion of
resilience in disaster and development discourse. The concept of disaster resilience
has confused things.2 For instance:

The ecological literature has moved to using the term adaptive capacity, with resilience (the
amount of deformation or disturbance a system can withstand before it loses a capacity to
bounce back) as a subset . . . its (resilience) value will only be retained if definitional issues
are resolved and more systematic work is conducted in outcomes and predictive processes.3

The concept has prompted a new way of conceptualising hazards and their conse
quences, as it suggests focusing on building something up rather than just reducing
something, which is the case when talking about poverty or vulnerability reduction.4
Recently, in addition to environmental determinism (Middleton and OKeefe, 1998),
which was viewed as an adequate account of human disasters, political and socio-
economic conditions have received recognition, coinciding in space and time with an
extreme trigger event natural hazard to which a certain group of people has been
made vulnerable.This has made an immense contribution to our understanding of the
interrelationship among hazard, risk and vulnerability. Deficient information, commu
nications and knowledge among social actors, the lack of institutional and community
organisation, weaknesses in emergency preparedness, political instability and the absence

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of economic health in a geographic area, are all factors in generating greater risk
(Cardona, 2004).
Risk and vulnerability, however, have not been conceptualised in a comprehensive
manner. Instead, fragmentation has been common: risk has been estimated according
to different disciplinary approaches; the same applies to vulnerability, which has been
defined within disciplinary ghettos.To estimate risk on a multidisciplinary basis, one
needs to be aware not only of the expected physical damage and of the victims or eco
nomic losses, but also of social, organisational and institutional aspects. At the urban
scale level, for example, vulnerabilityseen as an internal risk variablemust be related
not only to exposure of the material context or the physical susceptibility of the
exposed elements, but also to social frailties and the degree of resilience of the prone
communities. This necessitates looking beyond the capacity to respond or to absorb
the impact and considering the essential and non-essential elements of community
systems able to adapt to and survive the shocks.
The concept of resilience helps us to obtain a complete understanding of risk and
vulnerability. It fills a void by addressing the soft perspective of vulnerability and allows
us to rethink the prevalent risk = hazard x vulnerability equation.
Focusing on resilience directly, rather than vulnerability or poverty reduction, is
important for another reason too. Disaster resilience activities can lead to actions
such as enhancing community coping capacity and livelihoods,5 allowing communi
ties to make appropriate choices within the context of their environments.

Resilience is rooted in making choices about future losses when development decisions are
made. Choosing what is lost in future disasters is absolutely a new way to view those losses
since it places 100% responsibility for those losses on people versus nature.6

Expressing things in a new way can encourage people to grasp abstraction or assist
them in doing so. For example, the term road map has gained currency in develop
mental circles, but could we say the road map of today is the same as or different from
a blueprint? The answer perhaps has to do with language: societal metaphors are pop
ularised for a period, until another expression replaces them.7 However, words are
prisons, as well as searchlights and pigeonholes, for what we see (Stibbs, 1998). Metaphors
and linguistic accidents have a historical habit of referring to something objectively
real when it is not (Smith and OKeefe, 1996). Using words without a clear definition
or categorisation makes it difficult to come up with a clear concept. Disaster resilience
could be viewed as a new phrase describing a desired outcome of a disaster risk reduc
tion programme; but it does not deal with the unique condition itself. With this in
mind, it is perhaps safe now not to label it as a paradigm but as a lens or entry point8
or to see it as the beginning of a search for a new paradigm.

Disaster resilience as a process or an outcome?

The answer to this question may constitutes a fundamental step towards the building
of a resilience paradigm. In the disaster field, where sociology and geography are at the

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core of scholarship and research, inroads have been made with definitional issues, as
Box 1 shows.The definitions are diverse, reflecting the complexity of society and think
ing on society and disasters. However, unless we clarify concepts and reach a minimum
consensus on the defining features, we will continue to talk past one another (Quarantelli,
1995) on what disaster resilience entails.
Resilience has been generally defined in two broad ways: as a desired outcome(s) or
as a process leading to a desired outcome(s) (Kaplan, 1999). Admittedly, categorising
definitions as outcome- or process-oriented is no easy task and the distinction may seem
unnecessary.A close look at the definitions in Box 1, though, reveals a gradual refinement
in the way we conceptualise disaster resilience: from more outcome-oriented to more

Box 1 Definitions of resilience

Author Definition

Wildavsky, 1991 Resilience is the capacity to cope with unanticipated dangers after they have become manifest,
learning to bounce back.

Holling et al., 1995 It is the buffer capacity or the ability of a system to absorb perturbation, or the magnitude of
disturbance that can be absorbed before a system changes its structure by changing the
variables.

Horne and Orr, 1998 Resilience is a fundamental quality of individuals, groups and organisations, and systems as
a whole to respond productively to significant change that disrupts the expected pattern of
events without engaging in an extended period of regressive behaviour.

Mallak, 1998 Resilience is the ability of an individual or organisation to expeditiously design and implement
positive adaptive behaviours matched to the immediate situation, while enduring minimal
stress.

Local resiliency with regard to disasters means that a locale is able to withstand an extreme
Miletti, 1999 natural event without suffering devastating losses, damage, diminished productivity, or
quality of life without a large amount of assistance from outside the community.

Comfort, 1999 The capacity to adapt existing resources and skills to new systems and operating conditions.

Paton, Smith and Violanti, Resilience describes an active process of self-righting, learned resourcefulness and growth
2000) the ability to function psychologically at a level far greater than expected given the individuals
capabilities and previous experiences.

Kendra and Wachtendorf, The ability to respond to singular or unique events.

2003

Cardona, 2003 The capacity of the damaged ecosystem or community to absorb negative impacts and
recover from these.

Pelling, 2003 The ability of an actor to cope with or adapt to hazard stress.

Resilience Alliance, 2005 Ecosystem resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem to tolerate disturbance without
collapsing into a qualitatively different state that is controlled by a different set of processes.
A resilient ecosystem can withstand shocks and rebuild itself when necessary. Resilience in
social systems has the added capacity of humans to anticipate and plan for the future.

UNISDR, 2005 The capacity of a system, community or society potentially exposed to hazards to adapt, by
resisting or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and
structure. This is determined by the degree to which the social system is capable of organising
itself to increase this capacity for learning from past disasters for better future protection
and to improve risk reduction measures.

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process-oriented. Undoubtedly, earlier authors were thinking of resilience as a process

to reach an outcome. However, use of the terms cope, bounce back, withstand or
absorb negative impacts to return to normal within the shortest possible time, tend
to emphasise a reactive stance. The latter description might be more appropriate for
objects capable of regaining their original shape after bending, stretching, compression
or other types of deformation.
When referring to people, the essence of resilience centres on quick recovery from
shock, illness or hardship. One who is resilient may be considered irrepressible, buoy
ant, enduring, flexible; the person who bounces backunchangedfrom exposure
to stresses and shocks (Vickers and Kouzmin, 2001). Disaster resilience is seen as the
shield, shock absorber or buffer that moderates the outcome to ensure benign or
small-scale negative consequences. Indeed, the goal of disaster risk management is to
guarantee minimal loss of life and livelihoods and to allow the affected community
or system to return to normal within the shortest possible time. While it would be
unreasonable to present this in a negative light, it is important to point out that resil
ience is arguably about peoples capacity far beyond the minimum of being able to
cope. Merely defining resilience on the basis of minimum standards of development
and relief may be an inadequate conceptual and practical application of the approach,
which fails to realise peoples aspirations to be outside the high risk zone altogether.
The danger of viewing disaster resilience as an outcome is the tendency to reinforce
the traditional practice of disaster management, which takes a reactive stance (McEntire
et al., 2002). Disaster management interventions have a propensity to follow a paternal
istic mode that can lead to the skewing of activities towards supply rather than demand.
Activities such as community capacity building, mitigation and emergency preparedness
planning, which impact greatly on response and recovery operations, may be neglected
(McEntire et al., 2002). The United Kingdoms Resilience Programme, for example, is
laudable and will improve the coordinated response capabilities of emergency services,
other government agencies and utilities. However, broad-scale community involvement
is not part of the United Kingdom governments resilience strategy. In the event of
disasters that will overstretch emergency services, responses will naturally become
the responsibility of affected communities. Some see the resilience programme as a
new version of the paternalistic civil defence approach employed during the Cold War
(Alexander, 2002) and applied in the wake of more complicated terrorist threats.
Outcome-oriented disaster resilience programmes are inclined to adopt command and
control styles that risk preserving the status quo, and which might entrench exclusion,
and take attention away from the inequality, oppression and entitlement loss that results
in cases of proneness to insecurity and disaster.
Viewing disaster resilience as a deliberate process (leading to desired outcomes) that
comprises a series of events, actions or changes to augment the capacity of the affected
community when confronted with singular, multiple or unique shocks and stresses,
places emphasis on the human role in disasters. Disaster resilience is seen as a quality,
characteristic or result that is generated or developed by the processes that foster or
promote it. Put differently, resilience is not a science nor does it deal with regularities

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in our experience, but rather, it is an art that addresses singularities as we experience

them (Weinberg, 1985). For instance, recognising the human role in disasters, taking
responsibility for action, having a disaster plan, building capabilities to implement the
plan, purchasing insurance and sharing information on recovery priorities are steps that
can enhance the resilience and hence the ability of an individual, group, community
or nation to deal with unique destabilising situations. In this case, therefore, resilience
is a goal that we should strive to achieve or a quality that we should try to attain.9
The concept of adaptation has featured in some definitions, particularly those related
to ecological systems; this aspect of resilience is more about the process-oriented outcome.
Adaptation makes resilience both a contextual and personal construct because it depends
on the high-risk status or degree of exposure of the people in danger and their person
alised adaptive strategies. Resilience has a futuristic dimension as adaptation occurs in
the post-disaster phase: it is a strategy to mitigate future disasters. Communities in the
drought stricken Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe, for example, have adapted to unreliable
rainfall by growing nzembwe, a drought-resistant type of millet produced in response
to drought spells experienced during the rainy season. In other words, these commu
nities have maintained their core values or assets but have addressed non-essential
elements, such as growing crops like maize, which require high amounts of rainfall.
This means that systems resilience (capacity to survive) is built on that systems ability
to alter non-essential attributesto adapt in order to survive.
This has important implications for policy. For instance, if a rural community of
Bangladesh or Mozambique is perceived as unsustainable and threatened by seasonal
flooding, do we respond with 1) forced resettlement, where the core system, local
livelihoods and culture can be lost, or 2) adaptive rural livelihoods development in situ,
where livelihoods and culture are preserved? The core difference here pertains to the
object to which we are conferring resilience.10 Individuals, communities or nations
have a degree of resilience, which can be defined in terms of their primary survival
values or assetslife, livelihoods and culture. From this vantage point, the goal of any
disaster resilience programme will be to enhance the fundamental values, assets and
resources that can be applied to the process of adapting to adverse circumstances.

The relationship between vulnerability and resilience

Resilience and vulnerability are common, related concepts in a number of scientific
disciplines (Klein et al., 1998) and they have gained currency in disaster work. A key
question that emerges, however, concerns the relationship between them. Is resilience
the opposite of vulnerability? Is resilience a factor of vulnerability? Or is it the other way
around? Again, it is not easy to provide single answers to these questions. Addressing
this relationship, though, is key to defining the meaning, implications and applications
of resilience.
The term vulnerability entered the disaster discourse in the 1970s. Phil OKeefe, Ken
Westgate and Ben Wisner (1976) argue in Taking the naturalness out of natural disasters
that disasters were more a consequence of socio-economic vulnerability than natural

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factors. Mechanical and systems engineers first used the expression vulnerability in
relation to different forms of construction, such as housing, bridges and factories (Twigg,
1998). However, the concepts popularisation is mainly credited to Peter Timmerman
and his monograph entitled Vulnerability, Resilience and the Collapse of Society, in which
he begins to link the concepts of resilience and vulnerability (Cardona, 2003). But
vulnerability as a concept does not rest on a well developed theory; neither is it associ
ated with widely accepted indicators or measurements (Watts and Bohle, 1993, p. 45).
There are more than two dozen definitions of vulnerabilityBoxes 2 and 3 list some
of them.The multiplicity of definitions is important and potentially useful in the theo
retical expansion of this domain as well as in examining the ramifications of under
standing and theoretical development of the way we choose to comprehend and react
to the critical issues that vulnerability studies represent. The following quote, however,
encapsulates one further reason:

Science can only win when scholars focus upon an idea and bring their unique perspectives
to the elucidation of this idea . . .We must continually re-examine exciting ideas to make
sure that they are worthy of the intellectual resources focused upon them (Kaplan, 1999,
p. 18).

The multiplicity of definitions is a reflection of the philosophical and methodolo

gical diversities that have emerged from disaster scholarship and research.There are two
distinct sources of vulnerability literature where the term is used with reference to
natural hazards: geography; and natural sciences. In development and welfare economics,
the phrase has been popularised following the release of the work of Robert Chambers
and Amartya Sen on rural development and entitlements, respectively (Schoon, 2005).
What is encouraging is the general consensus that seems to show that vulnerability to
disaster is determined not simply by a lack of wealth, but rather by a complex range of
physical, economic, political and social factors or the predisposition of a community
to damage by a destabilising phenomena involving an interdependent natural hazard
and anthropogenic pressures (OKeefe, Westgate and Wisner, 1976; Susman, OKeefe
and Wisner, 1983; Cutter, 1996; Twigg, 1998; Weichselgartner, 2001; Pelling and Uitto,
2001; Cardona, 2003; Cutter, Boruff and Shirley, 2003; Cardona, 2004;Wei et al., 2004;
Blaikie et al. 2004). The literature makes a distinction between human vulnerability,
social vulnerability and physical vulnerability: non-human elements are described in
terms of ecological and environmental fragility.
Whether resilience and vulnerability are positive and negative poles on a continuum
depends on how we define the two terms. If we accept the definitions in Box 2, where
vulnerability is related to the degree of capacity, then vulnerability is closely associated
with the level of resilience. There is no fundamental difference in the definitions of
resilience (Box 1) and the definitions of vulnerability (Box 2).This suggests that the two
concepts are opposites or two sides of the same equation on a continuum. Consequently,
the definitions are dependent on the reference framework or the distance from the
furthest negative and positive pole points. If one is situated more towards the positive
pole of the continuum, one becomes more resilient than vulnerable, and vice versa.The

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Box 2 Definitions of vulnerability more related to disaster resilience

Author Definition

Timmerman, (1981) Vulnerability is the degree to which a system acts adversely to the occurrence of a hazardous
event. The degree and quality of the adverse reaction are conditioned by a systems resilience
(a measure of the systems capacity to absorb and recover from the event).

Pijawka and Vulnerability is the threat or interaction between risk and preparedness. It is the degree to
Radwan, 1985 which hazardous materials threaten a particular population (risk) and the capacity of the
community to reduce the risk or adverse consequences of hazardous material releases.

Dow, 1992 Vulnerability is the differential capacity of groups and individuals to deal with hazards, based
on their positions within physical and social worlds.

Watts and Vulnerability is defined in terms of exposure, capacity and potentiality. Accordingly, the
Bohle, 1993 prescriptive and normative response to vulnerability is to reduce exposure, enhance coping
capacity, strengthen recovery potential and bolster damage control (i.e., minimise destructive
consequences) via private and public means.

Blaikie et al., 1994 By vulnerability we mean the characteristics of a person or a group in terms of their capacity to
anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural hazard. It involves a
combination of factors that determine the degree to which someones life and livelihood are
put at risk by a discrete and identifiable event in nature or in society.

Green et al., 1994 Vulnerability to flood disruption is a product of dependence (the degree to which an activity
requires a particular good as an input to function normally), transferability (the ability of an
activity to respond to a disruptive threat by overcoming dependence either by deferring the
activity in time, or by relocation, or by using substitutes), and susceptibility (the probability and
extent to which the physical presence of flood water will affect inputs or outputs of an activity).

Bohle, Downing and Vulnerability is best defined as an aggregate measure of human welfare that integrates
Watts, 1994 environmental, social, economic and political exposure to a range of potential harmful
perturbations. Vulnerability is a multilayered and multidimensional social space defined by the
determinate, political, economic and institutional capabilities of people in specific places at
specific times

Weichselgartner By vulnerability, we mean the condition of a given area with respect to hazard, exposure,
and Bertens, 2000 preparedness, prevention, and response characteristics to cope with specific natural hazards. It
is a measure of the capability of this set of elements to withstand events of a certain physical
character.

Source: adapted from Weichselgartner, 2001

Resilience Alliance, a network of ecology scientists set up to inform policy on sustain

able development through research (Klein, Nicholls and Thomalla, 2003), sees vulner
ability of a system as resulting from reduced resilience. In other words, something very
vulnerable is not very resilient and the other way around. In this case, resilience is a
factor of vulnerability and vulnerability is a factor of resilience.11 But this kind of inter
pretation is rather simplistic and myopic and lends itself to what Klein, Nicholls and
Thomalla (2003) term circular reasoning: a system is vulnerable because it is not resilient;
it is not resilient because it is vulnerable.
If we accept the definitions in Box 3, which have little or no relation with the defini
tions of resilience, then vulnerability and resilience may not be related at all.Vulner
ability is seen as: a threat or exposure to a hazard; the degree of potential for loss; or
circumstances that put people at risk, including social, economic, political, technological,

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Box 3 Definitions of vulnerability with a different type of or less strong relationship

with disaster resilience

Author Definition

Gabor and Vulnerability is the threat (to hazardous materials) to which people are exposed (including
Griffith, 1980 chemical agents and the ecological situation of the communities and their level of emergency
preparedness). Vulnerability is the risk context.

UNDRO, 1982 Vulnerability is the degree of the loss to a given element or set of elements at risk resulting
from the occurrence of a natural phenomenon of a given magnitude.

Susman, OKeefe and Vulnerability is the degree to which different classes of society are differentially at risk.
Wisner, 1983

Mitchell, 1989 Vulnerability is the potential for loss.

Liverman, 1990 The author distinguishes between vulnerability as a biophysical condition and vulnerability as
defined by political, social and economic conditions of society. She argues for vulnerability in
geographic space (where vulnerable people and places are located) and vulnerability in social
space (who in that place is vulnerable).

Downing, 1991 Vulnerability has three connotations: it refers to a consequence (e.g. famine) rather than a
cause (e.g. drought); it implies an adverse consequence (e.g., maize yields are sensitive to
drought; households are vulnerable to hunger); and it is a relative term that differentiates
among socioeconomic groups or regions, rather than an absolute measure or deprivation.

UNDRO, 1991 Vulnerability is the degree of the loss to a given element or set of elements at risk resulting
from the occurrence of a natural phenomenon of a given magnitude and expressed on a scale
from 0 (no damage) to 1 (total loss). In lay terms, it means the degree to which the individual,
family, community, class or region is at risk of suffering a sudden and serious misfortune
following an extreme natural event.

Alexander, 1993 Human vulnerability is function of the costs and benefits of inhabiting areas at risk of natural
disaster.

Cutter, 1993 Vulnerability is the likelihood that an individual or group will be exposed to and adversely
affected by a hazard. It is the interaction of the hazard of place (risk and mitigation) with the
social profile of communities.

Dow and Vulnerability is the differential susceptibility of circumstances contributing to vulnerability.

Downing, 1995 Biophysical, demographic, economic, social and technological factors such as population ages,
economic dependency, racism and age of infrastructure are some factors which have been
examined in association with natural hazard.

Gilard and Vulnerability represents the sensitivity of land use to the hazard phenomenon.
Givone, 1997

Comfort et al., 1999 Vulnerability are those circumstances that place people at risk while reducing their means of
response or denying them available protection

Source: adapted from Weichselgartner, 2001

biophysical and demographic aspects.Yet, the definitions in Boxes 2 and 3 are also closer
to the definition of risk and some of them implicitly include the concept of disaster
resilience because they are more broad and comprehensive; most have contributed to
the conceptual confusion.Vulnerability could be viewed as a reflection of the intrinsic
physical, economic, social and political predisposition or susceptibility of a community
to be affected by or suffer adverse effects when struck by a dangerous physical phenom
enon of natural or anthropogenic origin. It also signifies a low level (rather than a lack)

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of disaster resilience, limiting capacity to recover; each system has some degree of resili
ence. Disaster resilience could be viewed as the intrinsic capacity of a system, community
or society predisposed to a shock or stress to adapt and survive by changing its non-
essential attributes and rebuilding itself.
Douglas Paton is of the view that the two concepts should be considered as discrete
entities:

. . . we can possess characteristics that can make us vulnerable and that can influence our
capacity to adapt at the same time. . . . Until it can be demonstrated to the contrary, I think
they should be viewed as discrete.12

Larry Mallak also is of the opinion that resilience and vulnerability, although often
viewed as opposites, are two distinctly separate constructs:

I think a good parallel is Herzbergs two-factor theory . . . they essentially impact job satis
faction and job dissatisfaction, which Herzberg argues are not opposites.The absence of job
dissatisfaction does not mean that you have job satisfaction. Here, too, with resilience: the
absence of vulnerability does not make one resilient.13

Phil OKeefe argues that while vulnerability is not necessarily the flip side of resil
ience, it does not mean that we can fold vulnerability into resilience or vice versa.How
we produce environment and how to change environment are key to understanding
social resilience.14
In sum, two views have emerged: one sees disaster resilience and vulnerability as
factors of each other, while the other sees them more as separate entities. The latter
section of this paper assesses the implications.

Does resilience refer to people or physical infrastructure

or both?
The establishment of the Resilience Alliance, and the adoption of the term by the
UNISDR in its strategy for 200515, underlines the importance of the concept in
modern times. Yet it remains uncertain whether resilience refers to natural, social,
technological or economic systems, for example. Some scholars contacted as part of
the information-gathering process for this paper were of the opinion that people may
respond and recover effectively after a disaster, whereas physical infrastructure resists
to a point and then fails:

I think resilience can be applied to people, communities, institutions and the natural envi
ronment.With buildings, I am less certain. It is feasible to discuss reducing the vulnerability
of buildings and other infrastructure, but they do not adapt per se. Reducing their [build
ings] vulnerability is important to ensure their availability for people post disaster. To the
extent they afford people the opportunity to adapt, they can be implicated in this context.15

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 444 Siambabala Bernard Manyena

The separation of people from structuresthat is, people can engage in adaptive
behaviour but structures only can be adaptedsounds rather simplistic. While human
beings should be at the centre of any resilience programme, they do not live in a
vacuum but instead are part of systems that impact on losses and the localitys ability
to deal with them.16 Indeed, ecology literature is full of illustrations of societies, cities,
communities and habitats, inter alia, as complex dynamic systems in the process of
adaptation. If we accept that the definition of resilience incorporates the concept of
adaptation, then structures as complex dynamic systems are also subject to the process
of adaptation. Most scholars contacted as part of the information-gathering process
for this paper believe that resilience should have a wider application. Viewing resil
ience from a broader standpoint ensures the capture of interrelationships and linkages
between systems. Several disciplines, including human geography, human ecology and
ecological economics, have hinted at parallels between ecosystem resilience and social
resilience, yet it is not clear whether communities dependent on resilient ecosystems
are themselves inherently more resilient (Agder, 2000). It may be a truism that resilient
individuals may exist in non-resilient systems and resilient systems may contain indi
viduals who are not resilient.17

If I am apathetic about disasters (which may hurt my ability to cope with a disaster after
it occurs), I may not invest in disaster resistant construction. Also, if buildings crumble to
the ground in an earthquake, a communitys resilience may be jeopardised, as roads are
impassable due to debris (which hinders emergency response and the delivery of aid).18

A different emphasis in this respect is also called for in the following statement, which
implies that resilience should not refer to people in systems so much as the nature of
the system itself:

I have a different view from Ben Wisner and Terry Cannon or, at least, another way of
seeing the same problem. They say in their recent contributions that only human vulner
ability exists and that the buildings are indeed unsafe. It is an acceptable view. However,
I prefer to say that the humans are in an unsafe condition because, for example, the build
ings, or the crops are vulnerable too. Also I can say that a community is unsafe because its
organisation is deficient, and its economy is weak, that is, it has no capability to absorb the
impacts, it has no capabilities for recovering . . . because it has no resilience. . . . I do not
know any approach at present which views these considerations in the same way.19

However, systematic treatment of the concept of disaster resilience requires the

delineation of vulnerability and resilience, which are to some extent blurring con
ceptualisation of the term. Understanding the constituent elements of both could aid
our conceptualisation.The delineation also has an implication for disaster risk reduc
tion delivery. Box 4 attempts to contrast the elements of vulnerability and disaster
resiliencethe major elements of the former being engineering and environmental
sciences, and the major elements of the latter being medical and social sciences.

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 The concept of resilience revisited 445

Box 4 Differences between vulnerability and resilience

Vulnerability Resilience

Resistance Recovery

Force bound Time bound

Safety Bounce back

Mitigation Adaptation

Institutional Community-based

System Network

Engineering Culture

Risk assessment Vulnerability and capacity analysis

Outcome Process

Standards Institution

The emphasis of human resilience is in the processes of enhancing human capacity

to recover from a disaster within the shortest possible time with minimal or no outside
assistance.This approach recognises that communities have certain levels of resilience
built over centuries. Local adaptation strategies, culture, heritage, knowledge and expe
riences are the building blocks for boosting disaster resilience. The approach focuses
on the quality of life of the people at risk and development opportunities to enhance
resilience.
The vulnerability approach places stress on the production of nature (Smith and
OKeefe, 1996) to resist the force, stress or shock resulting from a natural hazard. Engi
neering, guided by legislation, is at its nucleus. Also of paramount importance is the
extent to which we must consider vulnerability and resilience in the political economy
sense, in relation to human agency and world systems. Disaster management must
address risk in the context of complex political emergency. However, this is beyond
the scope of this paper.

Conclusion
The examination of resilience with respect to its definition, its relationship with vul
nerability, and whether it applies to people or structures or both, reveals the need to
tackle the philosophical questions that continue to blur the concept. Resilience is
currently too vague a concept (Hanley, 1998) to be useful in informing the disaster
risk reduction agenda.
One primary challenge facing researchers is to achieve consensus on the definition.
It has a variety of meanings: a metaphor related to sustainability; a property of structures;
and a measurable quantity that can be assessed in field studies of socio-ecological systems
(Carpenter, 2001).There is no problem with having multiple definitions as long as they
do not cloud conceptualisation. Reaching consensus on conceptualisation is not an end
itself, but has an implication for the modus operandi of disaster risk reduction delivery.

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 446 Siambabala Bernard Manyena

The argument presented in this paper suggests that disaster resilience could be viewed
as the intrinsic capacity of a system, community or society predisposed to a shock or
stress to adapt and survive by changing its non-essential attributes and rebuilding itself.
This definition has consequences for disaster risk reduction and development practice.
First, vulnerability reduction strategies are often orientated towards the creation of a
human coping environment.Yet we have learnt that people want more than simply to
attain the minimum standards associated with coping, meaning that there is a need to
adopt resilience thinking that goes beyond vulnerability reduction. Second, development
practitioners increasingly recognise that interventions are more likely to be successful,
leading to genuinely positive impacts on human well-being, when the emphasis is on
building local knowledge and augmenting existing capacity. This entails the identifica
tion of the essential and non-essential elements of communities and building on affirma
tive action rather than endless risk assessments and reactions to negatives.Third, project
planning can learn from the resilience discourse in that it encourages us to prepare for
resilience that is likely to be more than the sum of individual development activities
and go beyond simply reducing aspects of vulnerability that may or may not have been
possible to pinpoint.
It is important for the development and relief industry to identify and map resilience
because many definitions clearly show that it is not equal to or the opposite of vul
nerability. Furthermore, beyond being at times mutually exclusive concepts, different
understandings exist of where and how we are working with human and/or structural
resilience, at the individual or community level, and in relation to physical infrastructure
and the structure of institutions. Arguably, this is far from just a matter of semantics, but
rather a reflection of the diversity of meaning, understanding and presumably action in
this field of research and development. Specifically, we might simplify this situation by
considering the choices open to funding agencies to channel their resilience building
support (read vulnerability reduction) into education, capacity building, psychosocial
programmes and people-centred strategies, or more towards predetermined institutions
and infrastructures.The increased awareness of resilience in disaster and development
work does not necessarily mean the abandonment of support for infrastructure, but it
does suggest the need to mainstream resilience building through people at the centre of
disaster risk reduction and recovery.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professor Phil OKeefe, Dr.Andrew Collins and other anonymous
reviewers for their constructive comments.

Correspondence
Siambabala Bernard Manyena, Research Associate, Disaster and Development Cen
tre, School of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, 6 North Street, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK. Telephone: +44(0)1912273583; fax: +44(0)191 227 3473;
e-mail: [email protected].

DISA 30(4).indb 446 26/10/2006 12:35:17

 The concept of resilience revisited 447

Endnotes
1
E-mail correspondence with Graham Tobin, Professor, Department of Geography, University of South
Florida, US.
2
E-mail correspondence with Douglas Paton, Professor, School of Psychology, University of Tasmania,
Australia.
3
E-mail correspondence with Andrew Collins, Director, Disaster and Development Centre, North
umbria University, UK.
4
E-mail correspondence with Andrew Collins, Director, Disaster and Development Centre, North
umbria University, UK.
5
E-mail correspondence with Andrew Collins, Director, Disaster and Development Centre, North
umbria University, UK.
6
E-mail correspondence with Dennis Mileti, Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, University
of Colorado, US.
7
E-mail correspondence with Terry Jeggle, Senior Officer, United Nations International Strategy for
Disaster Risk Reduction, Geneva, Switzerland.
8
E-mail correspondence with Mark Pelling, Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, Kings College
London, UK.
9
E-mail correspondence with David McEntire, Programme Coordinator, Department of Public Admin
istration, University of North Texas, US.
10
E-mail correspondence with Mark Pelling, Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, Kings College
London, UK.
11
E-mail correspondence with Phil OKeefe, Professor, Disaster Management, Northumbria Univer
sity, UK.
12
E-mail correspondence with Douglas Paton, Professor, School of Psychology, University of Tasmania,
Australia.
13
E-mail correspondence with Larry Mallak, Professor, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing
Engineering, Engineering Research Laboratory, Western Michigan University, US.
14
E-mail correspondence with Phil OKeefe, Professor, Disaster Management, Northumbria Univer
sity, UK.
15
E-mail correspondence with Douglas Paton, Professor, School of Psychology, University of Tasmania,
Australia.
16
E-mail correspondence with Denis Mileti Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, University
of Colorado, US.
17
E-mail correspondence with Larry Mallak, Professor, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing
Engineering, Engineering Research Laboratory, Western Michigan University, US.
18
E-mail correspondence with David McEntire, Programme Coordinator, Department of Public Admin
istration, University of North Texas, US.
19
E-mail correspondence with Phil OKeefe, Professor, Disaster Management, Northumbria Univer
sity, UK.

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