Varieties of Resilience Studies in Governmentality

Resilience refers to the ability of individuals, groups and societies to withstand and recover from external shocks. This pioneering book-length comparative study examines resilience as it is experienced across different countries, such as the UK, US, France, Germany and EU. Furthermore it considers cases from policy sectors including national security, counterterrorism, civil protection, disaster risk reduction, critical infrastructure protection and overseas interventions. In doing so, Joseph provides an account of why it is that resilience has become such a popular policy topic, looking at its focus on complexity, the human and the role of resilient individuals and communities. Arguing that resilience has risen to prominence because it fits with a particularly Anglo-Saxon and neoliberal form of governance, Joseph discovers differing results across policy domains and national contexts, fomenting variations and tensions in the international discourse of resilience in policy-making.

Introduction: resilience in context; 1. The development of resilience; 2. Resilience in national security and counter-terrorism strategy; 3. Disasters, emergencies and infrastructure protection; 4. Resilience in development strategy and humanitarian intervention; 5. The Anglo-Saxon approach to resilience and the alternatives.

Jonathan Joseph is Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield and a former Senior Fellow at Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen. He is the author of The Social in the Global: Social Theory, Governmentality and Global Politics (Cambridge, 2012).