Resilience in crises

Thurid Hustedt, Professor of Public Administration and Management, explores the recent emphasis on “resilience” in reforming crisis management systems, in contrast to the traditional approach involving “phases” of  prevention, preparation, response and recovery, in an article published in the volume Handbuch zur Verwaltungsreform,  (Handbook for Administrative Reform) by Springer Reference Sozialwissenschaften in January 2019. This new approach has emerged as countries reform their administrative response to a host of new threats, such a terrorism and cyber security, she writes.

“At its core, the concept of resilience focuses attention on the ability of social groups, local communities or entire countries, to resist, absorb, deal with and as quickly as possible reactivate and normalize basic structures and processes,” Hustedt writes. “Building resilience is seen as a response to vulnerability problems, the specific circumstances and characteristics that make a social group, local community or country vulnerable to threats. The higher the resilience, the lower the number of victims and losses due to dangers and disasters - this is the basic assumption, and in the relevant literature the respective existing social capital is regarded as central to the strength of resilience.”

Hustedt writes that whether resilience establishes itself as a leading concept will depend on how well it works in practice, but that in general, current challenges can only be overcome through European and international cooperation.

Read the full article.