Bouncing back? Recession, resilience and everyday lives

an article by Elizabeth Harrison (University of Sussex, UK) published in Critical Social Policy Volume 33 Number 1 (February 2013)

Abstract

This paper critically engages with a recent shift towards an emphasis on ‘resilience’ in policy and academic fields.

The paper suggests that this shift is problematic for several reasons:

• that it supports normative value judgements;
• that it may overemphasise the ability of people to ‘bounce back’ and undervalue the hidden costs of resilience, especially those with gendered dimensions; and
• that it may be associated with policy prescriptions that shift responsibility for dealing with crisis away from the public sphere.

The empirical illustration for this analysis is a qualitative study of the impact of economic decline in the Sussex town of Newhaven.

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