Resilience: New Utopia or New Tyranny? Reflection about the Potentials and Limits of the Concept of Resilience in Relation to Vulnerability Reduction Programmes

Resilience is becoming influential in development and vulnerability reduction sectors such as social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Policy makers, donors and international development agencies are now increasingly referring to the term. In that context, the objective of this paper was to assess in a critical manner the advantages and limits of resilience. While the review highlights some positive elements –in particular the ability of the term to foster integrated approach across sectors– it also shows that resilience has important limitations. In particular it is not a pro-poor concept, and the objective of poverty reduction cannot simply be substituted by resilience building

I Found Work! Forty Years of Research on Work in Rural Mexico

In 1974 when I went to San Cosme Mazatecochco to do my dissertation research, I did not expect to study work, especially not the factory work of men in a rural Mexican community. Over the years, however, I have found that what I thought I would study is not what is important to the people of Mazatecochco. However, work has been the lens that has consistently led me to new and significant studies including globalization, migration and, most recently, even play

Leveraging the Domain of Work to Improve Migrant Health

Work is a principal driver of current international migration, a primary social determinant of health, and a fundamental point of articulation between migrants and their host society. Efforts by international organizations to promote migrant health have traditionally focused on infectious diseases and access to healthcare, while international labor organizations have largely focused on issues of occupational health. The underutilization of the domain of work in addressing the health of migrants is truly a missed opportunity for influencing worker well-being and reducing societal economic burden. Understanding of the relationships among migration, work, and health would facilitate further integration of migrant health concerns into the policy agenda of governments and international agencies that work at the nexus of labor, health and development. The domain of work offers an opportunity to capitalize on the existing health and development infrastructure and leverage technical resources, programs and research to promote migrant health. It also provides the opportunity to advance migrant health through new and innovative approaches and partnerships