The Use of Resilience in Regional Science: A Discussion of Some Contested Issues

The concept of resilience has now been widely adopted across the social sciences and has assumed prominence in regional science. While this growing attention is to be welcomed, it has also given rise to ambiguity and confusion within the existing regional science literature, especially regarding foundational questions and, consequently, to the policy implications of resilience. Using probability theory, this paper offers an analysis of three foundational and one policy-related issues associated with the use of resilience in regional science. The foundational issues address questions of definition, whether resilience should be understood as a process, and if resilience should invariably be regarded as desirable. The policy-related issue focuses on the related concepts of resilience and sustainability. The paper concludes with two recommendations about future research on resilience in regional science.