ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book delves into conceptual issues by asking a simple question “what is resilience and how it is practiced?” to see if they can offer a more unifying framework for understanding resilience which may help to operationalize its use in practice. It examines “why resilience is, or should be, important for IR today” by looking at the implications for interpreting order and governance in times of change. The book explores “where and how resilience is constituted” by underscoring its essential link with “the local” and “the person” to give new momentum to the people understanding of more adaptive governance, and will examine how resilience is constituted and maintained by looking at some of the agent-based micro-processes that are necessary for undertaking reflection and adaptation in the face of change.
