C. Edwards, Demos
Community resilience is an everyday activity. It manifests itself in meetings and conversations, dialogue and training, skills and information and – when disaster occurs – action. Although it may be formalised in local parish plans or community risk registers, community resilience is first and foremost about people – not the paper the plans are written on. And this presents a problem for government, relevant agencies and the emergency services.
Resilient Nation raises some profound challenges and issues around the role of individuals and communities in the UK, and the relationship between the state and citizens.
As a result we need to rethink the concept of resilience in a way that resists the temptation to think only in terms of the ability of an individual or society to ‘bounce back’ but suggests a greater focus on learning and adaptation. In a new definition of this concept, responsibility for resilience must rest on individuals not only on institutions.
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The article can also be found on the
Demos website.