Seeing clearly in resilience : a conceptual revision proposal

The work is dedicated to resilience as a crucial yet controversial concept at the intersection of science and policy. The first chapter provides an overview of the different discourses and frameworks through which this concept is given meaning. The second chapter diagnoses the defectiveness of the concept of resilience in both its internal and external dimensions by identifying the failures of the concept (in both scientific and policy contexts) to provide meaning and to lead to desirable practical outcomes. In this phase of the research, which draws on the scholarship of conceptual engineering, the lack of scale specification is identified as a crucial and fundamental factor in the defectiveness of the concept of resilience.The third chapter is devoted to a proposal for conceptual revision, which consists of building scale-sensitive models for formulating determined concepts of resilience. In the process, theoretical and practical issues are addressed. The thesis concludes with two case studies: one focuses on a clearly delineated socio-ecological system, i.e. the BEF company operating in the Piedmont agri-food system; the other deals with the consequences and responses to Hurricane Katrina, which hit the south-eastern coast of the USA in 2005. In both cases, the proposed revision of the concept of resilience outlined in the third chapter is applied, with particular emphasis on the effects of scale, both in defining the meaning of resilience and in guiding the type of actions undertaken under the influence of this concept.