Resilience, security and the politics of processes

What is it about?

The article addresses the increasingly popular notion of resilience, which emphasizes the importance of 'adaptive capacities' of societies. In other words, the capability of societies to 'bounce back' from crises and enhance their functions in an adaptive manner is increasingly emphasized instead of the traditional preventive approach. We argue that this entails a process-oriented image of society, and is in danger of suffocating the concept of public space so crucial for democratic politics.

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Why is it important?

Politically the article intervenes in a rapidly expanding discussion and enthusiasm around the concept of resilience, which plays an important role especially in the fields of development and security politics, particularly in UK and the EU. Academically the article engages in a discussion with other critics of resilience, particularly Foucauldian governmentality/biopolitics approaches, and demonstrates the ways in which Arendtian conceptualizations of politics is a vital addition to them.