ABSTRACT
This chapter explores three principal claims: That fundamental differences between worldviews of resilience contribute to a global–local Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) implementation gap; the person is largely missing from global DRR yet integral for local disaster resilience; and a personalist ethics of resilience provides an important corrective to existing conceptualisations of disaster resilience. The Pacific worldview of resilience is understood through the maintenance of traditions, rituals and beliefs as a means for establishing a sense of security ensuring survival and wellbeing. The case of the Caribbean worldview has always been about adaptation, change and an earnest search for a common identity and sense of community. The Caribbean has historically found resilience in creativity and adaptation. The chapter argues that global approaches to improving local levels of risk are woefully inadequate because of a failure to prioritise a person-orientated ethics in its conceptualisation of disaster resilience.
