Cultures of resilience : citizenship-focused approach to confronting “natural” disasters

This paper brings together the findings of two projects, one on citizenship and the other looking at community responses to climate change-driven disaster. Citizenship and community resilience are central to each project. The findings are neither surprising or unexpected: strong communities with citizens that experience a sense of agency and social capital establish "cultures of resilience" that respond quickly and competently when confronted with disaster. Such communities also have strong links been local propulations and governance systems, a sense of accountability, and a thick, two-way flow of information between expert knowledge systems and localised knowledge. Yet despite some exceptional research, discussed in greater detail below, this area is often under-investigated in resilience literature.