Trends, Shocks and Rebirth

Collective human social activity, processes involving the interaction of many individuals, all follow the same steps as they unfold from one trend to another, be the process the development of a fad in films or clothes, a financial market boom and bust, the rise and fall of a political ideology or even the birth and death of a global power. In this chapter we sketch the various steps that every social process takes from trending to collapse and on to rebirth, indicating the crucial role the notion of resilience plays in making that rebirth phase of the process possible.