Across society, there is growing recognition of the need to build greater resilience in how we provide for ourselves. Paul Allen explores what we mean by resilience and how it can link up many different aspects of our lives.

Across the UK and beyond, communities are facing a new era of profound and abrupt changes. To rise to this challenge, we must recognise that we have become embedded in a ‘brittle’ society. In globalising supply chains, the freemarket economy has removed the diversity, variety and natural connections that underpin communities’ ability to ‘bounce back’. Failures can quickly begin to feedback on each other, carrying the challenges beyond any government or local authority’s ability to cope, without active citizen support.

Positive resilience

Although not of their own making, these changes are compelling communities to reconsider how they move forward into the second quarter of the 21st century. Local resilience is going to be an important factor in this transition. This is typically defined in two ways:

• The speed and competence with which a household, community, town or region can prepare for and recover from shocks or dislocation.
• A measure of how well a system can flip into a totally different but still workable living system, should the original one become untenable.

Both definitions are useful – but they only view resilience as a means of dealing with negative impacts. It is also useful for us to consider a third type of resilience: Our ability to proactively and collectively prepare for challenges while also unleashing a positive force within our communities which brings us together.

For example, as we switch from importing fossil fuels to using the renewable energy assets on our doorstep, we need to be smart, flexible and collaborative. By working together, we can harness the benefits locally, as many community renewable projects have demonstrated. Of course, reclaiming the power in energy is not the only action needed to increase our resilience. Communities can multi-solve across a wide range of areas, including health, food, transport, skills, equity and local cohesion.

By working collectively to develop our physical resilience, we also build psychological resilience, both on a personal and community level. Once we are actively working to increase our resilience, we feel better about our position. Being on such a trajectory brings us into relationships with others and so builds positive pathways into a new community with a sense of collective purpose. This alone can improve our quality of life, as many projects have demonstrated.

Resilient together

When disrupted, nature reacts in complex collective ways to return to a new balance. We can learn from this to help us prepare for when human society is disrupted. We can build in resilience as a key factor in motivating local actions.

Resilience can become a new lens through which we explore our lifestyles, our community, and the choices we make to support each other in challenging times.

Building local resilience is rooted in interpersonal networks. The links within our personal communities are clearly going to be important. However, developing a wider network of affinity groups beyond our immediate social circle is also invaluable. These people will form a group we can build deeper trust with – a first port of call in times of difficulty or opportunity. In the face of increasing power cuts, floods, droughts and snowfall, community resilience makes good sense to a lot of people. It strengthens communities and has all sorts of positive co-benefits. Across Scotland, the Community Resilience Volunteer Service supports people from a wide range of different backgrounds who have the drive and commitment to put others first and support their communities.

Rethinking resilience can offer a powerful positive driver for engaging more deeply with our friends and neighbours. When people come together in common purpose, they can be a powerful force for change.

For example, Somerset Prepared is a partnership working closely with communities to help enhance local resilience to emergencies. It is made up of a diverse range of organisations able to provide advice, guidance and support to help volunteers and local community groups develop initiatives that enhance resilience in their area.

Just in Case

Resilience building is going to play an increasing role as we reshape our lives in the coming years, moving from the margins to become central in our communities. To help with this, new research on food security has just been released by the UK National Preparedness Commission. Led by regular CAT guest lecturer Professor Tim Lang, the Just in Case: narrowing the UK civil food resilience gap report makes clear that our system needs reforming. The report highlights case studies that demonstrate what needs to be scaled up, including civic awareness, local and national policies, plus horticulture markets and community food projects.

Skills for the future

Building the resilience of our communities can deliver tangible benefits, as well as being a personally creative, connecting and empowering process. CAT recognises this and offers people the opportunity to learn new skills and have hands-on experiences in a diverse mix of areas, from renewables for households and eco-refurbishment to food growing and soil regeneration. We also offer bespoke training for groups, such as Civic Square and the Ecological Citizens Network. The knowledge, skills and tools we share will enable more people and their communities to make the vital transition to a more resilient future.

About the author

Paul is CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain Knowledge and Outreach Coordinator. He has been involved with our research into zero carbon scenarios since the beginning, coordinating the development of research reports and liaising directly with government, industry, NGOs and the arts to share findings.