Running head: CONCEPT ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

Community Resilience: A Concept Analysis

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Community Resilience: A Concept Analysis

The term resilience is often used in the same manner as the phrase bouncing back
(Mayunga, 2007). The ability to transform disaster into a growth experience and move forward
defines the concept community resilience (Polk, 1997, para 1). In the past, resilience has been a
concept in the middle-range theory realm predominantly associated with individuals; even more
specifically, children. Community and organizational resilience has been emphasized in recent
time with the emergence of such events surrounding September 11, 2011, and many natural
disasters which have affected communities globally. The Advanced Public Health Nurse
(APHN) is concerned with vulnerable populations and communities in this process of moving
through hardship and with its own impact on that process.
Purpose/Significance of Analysis
The purpose of this paper is to explain resilience as it relates to communities, especially
in times of disaster, using the criteria outlined by Walker and Avant (2011). This paper hopes to
differentiate the concept of community resilience from the general concepts of individual and
organizational resilience by defining its attributes, antecedents, and consequences of the term.
Additionally, analysis of this concept hopes to promote improved understanding of the
psychology of community resilience which may lead to improved interventions appropriate for
communities.
Uses of the Concept
The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2014) defines resilience as an ability to
recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change, and the American Psychological
Association (APA) (2014) states on their webpage for The Road to Resilience, that resilience is
the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant

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sources of stress (para. 4). In Earth systems such as biology and ecology, resilience has two
meanings: (a) the time of return to a global equilibrium following a disturbance; and (b) the
amount of disturbance that a system can absorb before it changes state (Gunderson, Holling,
Pritchard, & Peterson, 2002, p. 530). A review of literature showed that quite a few different
disciplines utilize the term resilience. It is commonly found in articles pertaining to economics,
engineering, business, the stock market, corporate resilience, environmental science, biology,
materials processing, and medicine. For the purpose of this paper, only literature that focused on
human resilience was reviewed. It was found that psychology and psychiatry were the most
prominent fields where resilience has been researched. Nursing and medicine also have studied
about resilience in specific areas such as (but not limited to) mental health, posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), cancer survivors, aging and elderly, and cardiac procedure recovery
(Earvolino-Ramirez, 2007). Several definitions are used in the community and public health
literature, including (a) the ability of an ecosystem to absorb changes and still persist (Holling,
1973); (b) the capacity to adapt existing resources and skills to new systems and operating
conditions (Comfort, 1999); and (c) the ability of social units to mitigate hazards, contain the
effects of disasters when they occur, and carry out recovery activities in ways that minimize
social disruption and mitigate the effects of future [disasters] (Bruneau, et al., 2003).
Defining Attributes
The concept as defined by Holling has been held as the standard in ecosystems and
biological communities, but Earvolino-Ramirez points out in her article published in the Nursing
Forum (2007) that community resilience has been redefined as a dynamic and modifiable
process (p. 73). Extensive analysis by the Community & Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI),
reviewed the attributes of community resilience in 2013. As defined by Walker and Avant

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(2011), attributes are those characteristics of a concept that are mentioned repeatedly in reviewed
literature. CARRI concluded the following attributes to be the core of community resilience:

Resilience is an inherent and dynamic attribute of the community. It exists

throughout the life of the community, and potentially it can either be determined
absolutely, or at least changes in a communitys resilience can be detected.

Adaptability is at the core of this attribute. Adaption can occur in either response to,
or anticipation of a crisis.

Adaption must improve the community; it must result in a positive outcome for the
community relative to its state after experiencing adversity.

Resilience should be defined in a manner that enables useful predictions to be made

about a communitys ability to recover from adversity. This will enable
communities to assess their resilience and take action to improve it if necessary
(CARRI, 2013).

There is significant difference in being resilient rather than becoming resilient, and
this difference is the largest identifier of community resilience. Individuals and organizations
become resilient, while communities are inherently already resilient. Individual resilience also
depends on attributes which are not associated with community resilience. Self-esteem, heredity,
self-expectancy, and personal relationships are all attributes found with individual resilience
(Earvolino-Ramirez, 2007). This is relevant to the public health worker who finds themselves
intervening during crisis. Communities are dynamic in the speed at which they recover from a
severe shock. They also have an inherent resilience at some degree just by the nature of being a
community. And communities have the ability to adapt to a crisis readily with a degree of

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ingenuity and effort (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC),
2011).
Model Case
On May 4th, 2007 in a rural town of Greensburg, Kansas, population 777, an EF5 on the
Fujita scale tornado leveled 95 percent of all structures and killed eleven people (Greensburg
GreenTown, 2013). Days after the storm, the community banded together and decided to rebuild
their town sustainably in an attempt to become the model green town for the future. Business
owners, community members, and other community constituents formed a grass-roots
organization in order to show America how to develop a community with the environment in
mind. In the face of the destruction, Greensburg looked at the disaster as an opportunity to
rebuild their city how they wanted to. This decision showed the dynamic attribute of resilience
and adaptation to an otherwise unpleasant situation. Greensburg was able to rebuild in a
reasonably quick timeframe and is still working as a community leading by example for other
communities how to be prepared, resilient and green (Greensburg GreenTown, 2013).
Alternative Cases
Two years ago, Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the United States in November
2012, destroying homes and businesses and killing 117 people. Sandy is estimated to have cost a
total of $68 billion, the most expensive recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina which hit the Gulf
Coast in 2005 (RAND.org, 2013). The recovery effort today still continues and many have given
up on the effort to rebuild. Citing insufficient funds and aid from Federal and local agencies is
outlined as reason to just walk away from the community. Hurricane Sandy has taught disaster
recovery lessons in futility and how well communities bounce back or do not bounce back from
disasters depending on their reaction after a crisis (RAND.org, 2013).

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Terrorism has brought communities together for many reasons, not so unlike the case of
September 11, 2001 when terrorists flew jetliners into the World Trade Centers, communities
decried the actions of Muslim extremists globally. Not only did the local communities where the
attack took place in New York and Washington D. C. come together in the aftermath to clean up
and rebuild, but the larger community of the country in a patriotic duty banded in support of the
United States military as they sought out those responsible for the attacks (Alavosius &
Rodriquez, 2005).
Resilience of communities has a direct correlation to the speed to which they respond and
recover, despite the amount of carnage created. Communities can be said to have one of two
trajectories; (1) a more resilient community, (2) a less resilient community (Figure 1.)
(Mayunga, 2007).
Antecedents and Consequences
Walker and Avant (2011) have stated that defining antecedents and consequences when
analyzing concepts and theories is often ignored, but this step may actually serve as a powerful
tool in understanding the social contexts and how the concept is put into action. The main
antecedent of community resilience is adversity. It is distinguished from all other variables of
social management processes or personal traits in the case of individual resilience. Disruption,
challenge and disaster create the environment in which communities must respond to. This leads
to the consequence of coping and adaption. Effectively managing the adversity eventually leads
to overcoming hardship and reforming adaptive models (Earvolino-Ramirez, 2007).
Empirical Referents
The final step which Walker and Avant (2011) include of the concept analysis is
determining empirical referents. While there are scales of resilience based for individual and

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organizations, communities have yet to be scored but by their resilient or less resilient
trajectories. This is an area which requires more attention. The closest this researcher could find
that resembles a collaborative conclusion is the definition of community resilience by CARRI
(2013):
Community resilience is the capability to anticipate risk, limit impact, and bounce back
rapidly through survival, adaptability, evolution, and growth in the face of turbulent
change.
New Knowledge Gained
Resilience is synonymous with bouncing back and the concept of community resilience is
differentiated from individual and organizational from becoming to actually being resilient.
Communities are inherently resilient and the APHN and public health worker needs to realize
this when developing interventions during crisis response. Applying this concept to practice will
aid the APHN in evolving and promoting improved understanding of the psychology of
community resilience which may lead to improved interventions appropriate for communities.

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References
Polk, L. (1997). Toward a middle-range theory of resilience. Advances In Nursing Science,
19(3), 1-13
Stanhope M., & Lancaster J. (2012). Public Health Nursing: Population-Centered Health Care
in the Community (8th ed). Philadelphia, PA: Mosby.
Parker, M.E. & Smith, M. C. (2010). Nursing theories and nursing practice (3rd ed.). F.A. Davis
Company.
McEwen, M. & Wills, E. (2014). Theoretical basis for nursing (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA:
Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins.
Earvolino-Ramirez M. (2007). Resilience: a concept analysis. Nursing Forum [serial online].
42(2):73-82.
Walker, L.O., & Avant, K.C. (2011). Strategies for theory construction in nursing (5th ed.).
Norwalk, CT: Appleton, Lange.
Resilience. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2014, from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/resilience.
American Psychological Association (APA). (2014). What is resilience? Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx
Gunderson, L., Holling, C.S., Prithard, L., & Peterson, G.D. (2002). Resilience. Encyclopedia of
Global Environmental Change: (2):530-531.
Holling, C. (1973). Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Review of Ecology and
Systematics. 4: 123.
Comfort, L. (1999). Shared Risk: Complex Systems in Seismic Response. Pergamon, NewYork.

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Bruneau, M., Chang, S., Eguchi, R., Lee, G., ORourke, T., Reinhorn,A., et al. (2003). A
framework to quantitatively assess and enhance the seismic resilience of communities.
Earthquake Spectra, 19: 733752.
Community & Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI). (2013). Definitions of Community
Resilience: An Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.resilientus.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/08/definitions-of-community-resilience.pdf.
Greensburg Greentown. (2013). Greensburg GreenTown History. Retrieved from
http://www.greensburggreentown.org/history.
RAND.org. (2013). One year later: hurricane sandys lessons in resilience and recovery.
Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/blog/2013/11/one-year-later-hurricane-sandyslessons-in-resilience.html
Alavosius, M. P.; Rodriquez, N. J. (2005). "Unity of Purpose/Unity of Effort: Private-Sector
Preparedness in Times of Terror". Disaster Prevention & Management 14 (5):
666.doi:10.1108/09653560510634098.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). (2011).
Characteristics of a safe and resilient community: community-based disaster risk
reduction study. Retrieved from
http://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/96986/Final_Characteristics_Report.pdf.
Mayunga, J. (2007). Understanding and applying the concept of community disaster resilience: a
capital-based approach. Academy of Social Vulnerability and Resilience, Munich,
Germany. Retrieved from https://www.ehs.unu.edu/file/get/3761.

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Figures

Figure 1. The trajectory of resilient and less resilient communities (Mayunga, 2007, p.5).