Transformation and resilience in times of change: A historical perspective

Abstract

Our current historical moment is marked by a widespread sense of (ongoing and anticipated) crises, prompting calls to change existing economic, political, social, and environmental systems. This discourse has directed increased scholarly and policy-orientated attention to the concepts of “transformation” and “resilience.” However, beyond attention, these concepts have increasingly adopted a place in rationales for policy action and measurements of its success, highlighting the need for conceptual clarity. In light of this, this paper reviews the use of transformation and resilience in the literature. These concepts appear across a broad spectrum of research fields, ranging from the natural to the social sciences. However, definitions and contexts vary broadly, further underlining the need for clarity. In this paper, we delve specifically into two disciplines: science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy research and economic history. Although unified in their explicit concern with societal change, the disciplines' different understandings of such change, particularly temporal aspects, offer fertile ground for exploring the divergent understandings, uses, and definitions of transformation and resilience in the literature. Through this work, the paper makes two main contributions. First, it produces a nuanced review of how the literature employs the concepts of transformation and resilience. Second, it offers an analysis of how transformation and resilience can be understood in relation to each other from a historical perspective. By historically anchoring these concepts while acknowledging that every time is different, the paper also offers some policy guidance on a key challenge of our era: how to successfully govern resilience and transformation in times of change.