11. Resilience as a concept and source of inequality: A critical examination   

Mary Daly (University of Oxford) 

Rense Nieuwenhuis (University of Stockholm) 

The concept of “resilience” is increasingly prominent in the policy discourse of the EU and its member states. The rise of resilience in the EU is matched in the academic attention to inequality and well-being in the social policy literature. However, much of the literature examines the concept of resilience either at the collective level of states or communities, or at the level of the individual. Family resilience is often considered with a focus on internal family functioning. While valuable, such perspectives risk overlooking structural inequalities in resilience and how these are created and perpetuated.  

It can be argued that “resilience” should encompass a recognition that not all individuals and families are equally likely to be exposed to risks – nor to the same risks – and that there are inequalities between individuals and families in the resources and constraints that determine their capacity to deal with risks. Of crucial importance is the role of the welfare state, both in preventing risks, and in supporting individuals’ and families’ capacity to respond to risks.    

The aim of this stream is to bring together papers that:

- Make conceptual contributions on resilience as a concept that is inherently linked with socio-economic and other inequalities;        

- Analyse how and to what extent inequalities are considered explicitly in the use of “resilience” in welfare state and social policy contexts;        

- Examine to what extent there are socio-economic and other inequalities in the resilience of individuals and families, and how they are ameliorated (or exacerbated) by social policy.    

We aim to have a mix of conceptual and empirical papers, and welcome quantitative and qualitative. Both single country and cross-national work are welcome. The “Inequalities in European Resilience?” stream is hosted by members of the rEUsilience project (www.reusilience.eu). We explicitly welcome contributions from outside the project, and those will be given priority. Project members will act as discussants to the paper presentations.