Resilience is a meaningful, measurable trait of communities

ABSTRACT

Community resilience can be quantified using available data to inform policy decisions. Identifying vulnerable or deprived communities in New Zealand is straightforward because social, cultural and economic indicators are correlated. However, that is just the first step. Resilience is also a matter of perspective, which means engaging with people in communities affected by policy decisions. When resilience is viewed as multi-dimensional, success in the formal and informal economies is linked to social resilience. However, social resilience cannot flourish in the absence of other resources.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• rural communities
• multi-methods research
• policy

Acknowledgements

The research on which this short note relies has involved a large number of colleagues and community contributors, whom I gratefully acknowledge.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by AgResearch; Ministry for Primary Industries; Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; New Zealand Institute of Economic Research; Our Land and Water National Science Challenge.