The Concept of Resilience in Recent Sustainability Research

Verena Nüchter, David J. Abson, Henrik von Wehrden and John-Oliver Engler
Additional contact information
Verena Nüchter: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany
David J. Abson: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany
Henrik von Wehrden: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany
John-Oliver Engler: Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-21

Abstract: The concept of resilience gained increased attention in sustainability science, with a notable spike from 2014 onwards. However, resilience is a multifaceted concept with no unanimous definition, making applications in the context of sustainability, a similarly multifarious term, a challenge. Here, we examine the use of resilience in well-cited sustainability literature in the period from 2014 to 2018. Based on our analysis, resilience as a concept proves its analytical strength through a diverse set of frameworks, indicators, and models, while its usefulness as boundary object is less clear. Most of the examined publications do not cite one of the well-established resilience definitions as a conceptual basis. The normativity of resilience is often implicit and rarely critically questioned, and strong participatory approaches are lacking. A multivariate statistical full-text bibliographic analysis of 112 publications reveals four distinct research clusters with partial conceptual proximity but hardly any overlap. While the majority of publications consider human well-being as an integral factor in their research, some research marginalizes this concept. Resilience to climate change dominates the discourse in the literature investigated, which signifies a need to broaden research efforts to other equally pressing—but in terms of the concept, widely neglected—sustainability challenges.

Keywords: resilience; sustainability science; mixed methods; multivariate full-text analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2735/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2735/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:2735-:d:509825

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().