Resilience Revisited: Toward an Expanding Understanding of Post-disaster Adaptation

Over the course of the past two decades, the impact of global disasters and complex emergencies has increasingly become a part of inter-disciplinary dialogue. Economic, political, biopsychosocial, and sociocultural aspects of large-scale events have drawn attention to the widespread and long-term consequences of such events (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 1998). These events are broadly classified into categories that reflect their precipitants, which from a psychosocial perspective can be understood as “sources of suffering.” These sources include the following events: natural disasters (e.g., tornadoes, wild fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes); technological disasters (air crashes, nuclear power plant accidents); disasters of human intent (bombings, terrorist attacks); interpersonal violence (domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, school or workplace violence, homicide, torture); sudden traumatic loss (serious or fatal motor vehicle accidents, suicide); serious medical illness; war, combat, and civil conflicts; and lastly what is described within an international context as complex emergencies (e.g., the current famine in Somalia, which combines the consequences of natural disaster (drought), with civil conflict (the murderous actions of the militant group Al-Shabab) within the context of a geopolitical region ravaged by decades of civil unrest, lack of governance, and limited public health infrastructure).