Resilience: This refers to a capacity for, or degree of, hardiness or self-renewal observable in a variety of organisms, species-types or systems of all kinds when confronted with disturbances, attacks emanating from their environments, or from within them.
Resilience does not mean freedom from disturbances or attack or change, but rather that the organism or entity so challenged has the capacity or ingenuity to survive and recover from (or reconfigure against) them. It does so using resources from within itself, or from a broadly conceived environment.
Resilient entities and systems are to be understood as sufficiently adaptable, durable and/or innovative when confronted with even extreme stress. They are not necessarily stable and unchanging regardless of the challenges (see, for example, Burnes, 2000: 206), but they are survivors.
Here below is a useful definition of resilience from ICLEI (= Local Governments for Sustainability). It is written with specific reference to the idea of a 'Resilient City' in today's context of climate change, but is in many ways generic in its applications:
"A 'Resilient City' is prepared to absorb and recover from any shock or stress while maintaining its essential functions, structures, and identity as well as adapting and thriving in the face of continual change. Building resilience requires identifying and assessing hazard risks, reducing vulnerability and exposure, and lastly, increasing resistance, adaptive capacity, and emergency preparedness" (see ICLEI)
READ: Program for Resilient Cities 2018
