More than two decades after Michael Rutter (1987) published his summary of protective processes associated with resilience, researchers continue to report definitional ambiguity in how to define and operationalize positive development under adversity. The problem has been partially the result of a dominant view of resilience as something individuals have, rather than as a process that families, schools,communities and governments facilitate. Because resilience is related to the presence of social risk factors, there is a need for an ecological interpretation of the construct that acknowledges the importance of people's interactions with their environments. The Social Ecology of Resilience provides evidence for this ecological understanding of resilience in ways that help to resolve both definition and measurement problems.
In a time of increasing exposure to personal psychological stress, as well as war, natural disasters, and economic upheaval, positive development under adversity-resilience-is meriting wider and deeper study. Despite this attention and over four decades' worth of robust literature, resilience remains difficult to define and even harder to measure.
Taking the view that resilience is a process to be developed and nurtured rather than a hard-wired capacity of the individual, The Social Ecology of Resilience explains how interactions with school, family, community, and culture can provide ingredients for positive development. Case studies representing international and cross-disciplinary perspectives (e.g., Aboriginal youth in Australia, refugees in Sudan, and gay teens in the U.S.) demonstrate resilience across cultures and the lifespan. And interviews with healers and activists who have themselves survived trauma reveal resilience as a set of processes that can be both learned and taught.
Featured in the coverage:
- Causal pathways and how social ecologies influence resilience.
- Situating resilience in developmental contexts.
- Fostering recovery, sustainability, and growth in traumatized communities.
- Resources that promote resilient parenting.
- Children with disabilities and the supportive school.
- Indigenous perspectives on resilience.
The up-to-date data and real-world viewpoints in The Social Ecology of Resilience will be of great interest to those working with this elusive concept, including social workers, psychologists, students and professors in family relations, and researchers in social policy.
