Community Resilience as a Metaphor, Theory, Set of Capacities, and Strategy for Disaster Readiness
Open accessAbstract
Communities have the potential to function effectively and adapt successfully in the aftermath of disasters. Drawing upon literatures in several disciplines, we present a theory of resilience that encompasses contemporary understandings of stress, adaptation, wellness, and resource dynamics. Community resilience is a process linking a network of adaptive capacities (resources with dynamic attributes) to adaptation after a disturbance or adversity. Community adaptation is manifest in population wellness, defined as high and non‐disparate levels of mental and behavioral health, functioning, and quality of life. Community resilience emerges from four primary sets of adaptive capacities—Economic Development, Social Capital, Information and Communication, and Community Competence—that together provide a strategy for disaster readiness. To build collective resilience, communities must reduce risk and resource inequities, engage local people in mitigation, create organizational linkages, boost and protect social supports, and plan for not having a plan, which requires flexibility, decision‐making skills, and trusted sources of information that function in the face of unknowns.
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Community resilience emerges from a set of networked adaptive capacities with dynamic trajectories having potential to maintain function during and adapting in the aftermath of disasters.
“Community resilience emerges from a set of networked adaptive capacities with dynamic trajectories having potential to maintain function during and adapting in the aftermath of disasters (Norris et al. 2008).”
From Disaster preparedness and resilience at household level in Yangon, Myanmar (2022) · cites this paper as Norris et al. 2008
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- Authors
- Norris, F. H., Stevens, S. P., Pfefferbaum, B., Wyche, K. F., & Pfefferbaum, R. L.
- Affiliations
- United States Department of Veterans Affairs (US)
- University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (US)
- Phoenix College (US)
- Corresponding author
- Norris, Fran H.
- Venue
- American Journal of Community Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2007-12-22
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 127-150
- ISSN
- 0091-0562 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-2770
- OpenAlex
- W2074746092
- Cited by
- 5,476
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 622 · 2025: 485 · 2024: 443 · 2023: 406 · 2022: 406 · 2021: 450 · 2020: 361 · 2019: 326 · 2018: 347 · 2017: 327 · 2016: 289 · 2015: 270 · 2014: 245 · 2013: 183 · 2012: 123
- FWCI
- 14.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Journal of Community Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University Libraries (University of Maryland) (submittedVersion)
- Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (University of Maryland College Park)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Disaster Management and Resilience
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Community Health and Development
- Keywords
- community resilience, disaster preparedness, adaptive capacity, social capital, economic development, information and communication, community competence, disaster mitigation, resource inequity, social support, resilience theory
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Community Participation, Disaster Planning, Humans, Models, Theoretical, Residence Characteristics, Social Support
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