Résilience et sociétés : Concepts et applications

Abstract

This article is an introduction to this special issue on 'resilience and societies’. Widely used in many scientific disciplines, the concept of resilience is however very variously understood. While some see it as a quality, others understand it as a process of mobilization
of unsuspected strength to overcome trauma. We note however that the social dimension is increasingly at the center of analyses. Environmentalists are looking at the socio-ecological systems, psychologists apprehend it under the psychosocial perspective, socio-economists sound implications of the living conditions of populations and social cohesion. This article examines the possible links between 'resilience and societies', both conceptually and some exploratory applications.