In recent years the term has been used to describe a burgeoning movement among entities such as businesses, communities and governments to improve their ability to respond to and quickly recover from catastrophic events such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks. The concept is gaining credence among public and private sector leaders who argue that resilience should be given equal weight to preventing terrorist attacks in U.S. homeland security policy.
Prominent members in the United States Congress are embracing resilience. The Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Bennie Thompson (D-MS) declared May 2008 “Resilience Month” as the committee and its subcommittees held a series of hearings to examine the issue. President Obama and the Department of Homeland Security have also made resilience an integral component of homeland security policy.
More scholarship is turning towards examining how to achieve resilience. Some have identified the four facets of resilience as preparedness, protection, response and recovery.
In Organizational Studies, resilience is often referred to as the maintenance of positive adjustment under challenging conditions. Here, resilience emerges as the response to specific interruptions of the normal. Sutcliffe and Vogus argue that resilience should rather be viewed from a developmental perspective, as an ability that develops over time from continually handling risks. Resilience, then, is "the continuing ability to use internal and external resources successfully to resolve new issues". Thus, "resilience is the capacity to rebound from adversity strengthened and more resourceful".