ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by combining select components of governmentality theory with a critical discourse analysis of the emergent politics of disaster resilience. Resilience is here seen as new face of market capitalism, another new governance tool kit for making the market more powerful. The polysemic and contested nature of the resilience concept has caused much concern for critical researchers in social sciences. The chapter balances the, somewhat damning, critique of resilience with reflexive engagement with its positive potential – opening this further by suggesting resilience can be used to inform progressive political agenda of action research. The emerging discourse of shared responsibility tends to treat the public as passive recipients of service or consumers in disaster market, contrary to policy rhetoric of resilience guidance documents. The state takes on role of coordinator of discourse, translating resilience into policy narratives to inform tools used by emergence of resilience practitioners, and convenor of financial investment generated through traditional government funding streams.
