Understanding Rural Resilience

Rural communities around the world have long faced significant challenges, ranging from depopulation and aging, economic vulnerability to environmental degradation and climatic impact. Over the last couple of decades, understanding of these processes and the responses of rural communities has been greatly enhanced by the engagement of rural scholars with the concept of resilience. As the contributions to this book richly demonstrate, resilience refers not only to “bouncing-back” after a shock, but also to levels of preparedness and the capacity to withstand disruption. Applied in a social context to communities it leads to a holistic approach that encompasses the interlocking social, economic, cultural, and ecological aspects of rural communities, the appropriateness of governance and planning systems, and the impacts of power and resource distribution on capacities to act. While the concept itself has gained traction in rural studies, it remains underdefined and often misunderstood, particularly in terms of how it can be operationalized in different rural settings.