On the nature and determinants of poor households’ resilience in fragility contexts

Several global policy frameworks focus on managing (risks of) disasters affecting broad populations. In those frameworks resilience is a conceptualisation that possibly has important ideological implications. It is often opposed to fragility, and used to validate the notion of recurring insecurity, promote individual adaptability almost in the form of an obligation, and push the idea that crises/catastrophes are opportunities for profound changes. While effects from the COVID-19 pandemic have brought the protective role of the state to the fore, applying the word resilience to poor people requires clarification, especially in contexts of weak state public services and because assessment of complex poverty situations too often remains oversimplified and error-prone. We argue that to build capacity for resilience poor households need policies that protect and help them out of poverty, and that policy-making processes require engagement with people. Individuals must be asked about their perceptions and management of risks and threats, both in daily life and under exceptional circumstances, especially if the resulting stress factors accumulate and interact. This socially informed, place-specific, and multi-level approach could contribute substantially to identifying interventions, reducing poverty and poverty related risks, enhancing well-being and promoting development and cooperation programmes that meet people’s expectations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mental fortitude training: An evidence-based approach to developing psychological resilience for sustained success

Drawing on the body of knowledge in this area, this article presents an evidence-based approach to developing psychological resilience for sustained success. To this end, the narrative is divided into three main sections. The first section describes the construct of psychological resilience and explains what it is. The second section outlines and discusses a mental fortitude training™ program for aspiring performers. The third section provides recommendations for practitioners implementing this program. It is hoped that this article will facilitate a holistic and systematic approach to developing resilience for sustained success

L'approche territoriale : une condition de l'apport de la résilience à la prévention des désastres

International audienceThis paper aims at identifying how the idea of resilience could significantly contribute to disasters reduction. We argue that two elements are crucial: questions of governance and diversity of actors. A place-based and constructivist approach of Lacq area was carried out. The development of Lacq was based on an important natural gas field discovered in the 1950's and a subsequent chemical industrial complex. From the 1980's Lacq had to carry out an industrial reconversion to tackle a severe economic crisis and the depletion of the gas field (the commercial exploitation ended in 2013). The area is exposed to different risks (both natural and industrial) and to changing territorial dynamics, uncertain future in the globalization context and political changes (decentralization with an increasing involvement of local authorities in economic development). The different kind of risks and changes the territory has to deal with may offer a good opportunity to study the idea of resilience. But our work shows that local stakeholders (risk practitioners, state representatives, mayors, companies representatives, inhabitants) never use the term "resilience". A place-based approach allows to contextualize resilience drivers. It points out local framework, power relations among actors and interactions between local and more global levels (multinational firm strategies, national energy transition framework...) which are essential drivers of future local pathways. We believe that resilience is plural and represents the "least bad" choices for the largest number of people whom voice is taken into account, because it is unrealistic to regard territorial resilience as a whole and to consider that all actors have common interests and the same power in decision-making process.Ce travail a pour objectif d'identifier à quelles conditions l'idée de résilience peut, malgré ses faiblesses conceptuelles, contribuer de manière significative à la prévention des risques de désastres. Deux conditions nous semblent déterminantes : la question de la gouvernance et la reconnaissance de la pluralité des acteurs. Une approche territoriale du bassin industriel de Lacq, autour d'une conception du risque plus constructiviste que naturaliste, fonde la réflexion. Le bassin est concerné par des risques multiples, des futurs incertains et des dynamiques territoriales changeantes. On trouverait là " en principe " des conditions appropriées pour mobiliser la notion de résilience. Mais dans les faits, la notion de résilience ne fait pas partie du vocabulaire des acteurs de terrain et malgré un discours dominant sur la " culture du risque " le rapport à celui-ci est pluriel. L'approche territoriale permet de contextualiser les ressorts de la résilience en mettant l'accent sur les effets de contexte, les rapports de force entre acteurs et les articulations entre échelles (politique industrielle, transition énergétique, par exemple) auxquels sont liées les destinées locales. Il s'agit de reconnaître que la résilience est plurielle : elle correspond aux moins mauvaises des décisions pour le plus grand nombre d'acteurs dont la voix compte, car il est illusoire de penser que tous les acteurs ont des intérêts convergents et qu'ils comptent également dans la décision, sur le territoire

Has ‘resilience’ changed anything? A reflection on the introduction of resilience to risk governance in Parisian region / Gestion des risques et des crises, entre gouvernance de la sécurité et gouvernance territoriale. Ce que la résilience change (ou pas) en Île-de-France

This article documents the introduction of ‘resilience’ to the French model of risk governance, and examines how this concept has been operationalized in risk and security governance as well as territorial governance in Parisian region. The article is based on qualitative approach, relying on formal interviews, participant and non-participant observation, regular informal exchanges with certain stakeholders and the analysis of gray literature documents (e.g. government reports, policy statements, and other technical reports). It first discusses the structural characteristics of risk governance in Île-de-France, underlining its territorial fragmentation and intricate matrices of actors in different levels of government that further aggravate the complexity of the already fragmented governance model. We then explore how the concept of resilience becomes operationalized in such context, based on our key informant interviews with practitioners in the field. Our investigation has revealed that, while the introduction of resilience does not necessarily imply significant changes in the practices of disaster management, the concept has served a role in reorganization of risk and security governance — via accompanying the restructuring of territorial governance which has been under way for several years. Furthermore, it has been observed that the concept is also of service to pushing through some of the existing political agendas and policy initiatives; this implies that the operationalization of ‘resilience’ largely relies on the performativity of the concept that only gets developed by the actual use of practitioners. http://journals.openedition.org/espacepolitique/546

Rapport des épreuves d'admission de géographie (oral) du CAPES d'histoire-géographie, session 2009

In rapport établi sous la responsabilité d'Y. Poncelet, président du jury, Concours externe du CAPES et CAFEP-CAPES, section histoire-géographie, session 2009, Historiens & Géographes, n° 408, octobre 200

11 septembre 2012 : Story Telling d'une renaissance

Le Huffington Pos

Swimming alone? Why linking flood risk perception and behavior requires more than it's the individual, stupid

A common assertion in discussions of flooding is that risk perception is critical and is linked to risk-mitigating behavior. Furthermore, many assert that the adverse effects of floods could be reduced by changes in risk communication, thereby influencing risk perception to foster mitigating behavior. We argue that these assertions are based on quite questionable underlying assumptions: That stakeholders are generally aware of flood risk, that they have the capacity to engage in disaster risk reduction, and that their actions can be effective. The belief in and policies influenced by these three questionable assertions support, in turn, policies that shift responsibility for flood risk reduction onto individuals and homeowners, without regard for social and spatial justice issues. In contrast, we argue that context matters to understanding the complexity of the relation between flood risk perception and behavior, local power relations, and other constraints and opportunities that affect stakeholders. While the academic community has long played a pivotal role in supporting practical flood risk management, future research should take a more critical perspective on the underlying assumptions and focus on improving coordination across theories, methods, and variables, fostering comparative studies across disciplines, contexts, and scales. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented Science of Water > Water Extreme