In recent years, resilience has become a buzzword, both in academe and in policy circles, often articulated as a policy goal or a desirable societal end-state. Having said this, the concept has mainly been used in conjunction to urban environments and regions susceptible to such issues, such as, for example, natural hazards, extreme poverty, and others. European regions in particular face some of these threats, but perhaps not in the same degree as other parts of the world. Still, European countries are not immune to social, economic, and political challenges. This then beg the question: what does resilience mean from a European perspective? How can resilience be applied to states with a strong welfare component, where values other than survival and putting food on the table are at stake? While we investigate resilience from a European perspective, we of course acknowledge that Europe is a diverse collection of countries and regions, with large variations among them in terms of political, social, cultural, and economic conditions. In this symposium, we will discuss dimensions of resilience that are common throughout Europe: Governing, social networks, and learning.
The symposium is tied to the major research project Resilience in Sweden (RISE) which in particular investigates governing, social networks, and learning. RISE is led by the Risk and Crisis Research Centre at Mid Sweden University and funded by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency.