Resilience means adapting and evolving in response to disruptions. It should not be confused with "robustness", which is the ability to withstand disturbances by maintaining stability.
The crucial difference is that resilience goes beyond merely being persistent or robust in the face of disturbance – it is about adapting through renewal. A resilient system is one that can evolve, by learning to better cope with similar disturbances in the future. This concept, sometimes called “adaptive resilience” or “adaptive capacity”, involves balancing sustainability with change.
Governing institutions play a crucial role in enhancing societal resilience in three key activities:
Key activity 1: buffering shocks: institutions serve as critical buffers against shocks. They do this by implementing risk management strategies and short-term interventions. Ideally these succeed in mitigating the impact of unforeseen disruptions.
This corresponds to the traditional role of the welfare state, which may directly support or compensate individuals in case of unexpected shocks. Indeed, welfare systems are often defined as “social safety net” due to their role in buffering social shocks. A typical example of this would be furlough subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key activity 2: providing life course capital through social investment policies. Institutions play a central role in equipping individuals with life-course capital. “Life course capital”, in demographic research, refers to individual socio-economic resources such as education, income, or social connections. Life course capital is provided through social investment policies. This involves strategic investments that support each person in developing essential tools for sustained resilience.
Education serves as a good example: it is one of the most important factors in making individuals resilient in the face of a shock. Policies aimed at increasing education will likely enhance resilience as well as individual robustness. Indeed, those with higher levels of education are better positioned to avert shocks, making them more "robust." But when a shock does occur, those with higher education are also better able to cope, which refers to their resilience.
But is expanding education sufficient? Not necessarily. Many educational systems in our modern world are stagnant and rigid rather than adaptive. As the world around us changes ever more quickly, educational systems must evolve accordingly. With democracy under threat, should we introduce more civic education? As technological change occurs, should we introduce more coding in school curricula? With access to the internet, does it make sense that students must memorize law and history? In an ever more interconnected world, should we emphasize student learning through collaboration and critical thinking?
In the future, individuals may enter higher education not once, but perhaps three times, all in the name of enhancing or using their resilience. With an aging population, the youth of today must work far longer than the current generation of retirees. With a working career of 50 years, along with rapid technological advancements, citizens must be given opportunities to re-enter education and acquire new skills.
All these aspects matter tremendously for individual resilience, but a resilient institution is needed to implement these policies. This leads to the final key activity:
Key activity 3: being resilient themselves. An institution can only boost societal resilience if it also adapts and evolves. This means that it must internalize foresight, needs assessments and flexibility into its strategy and operations to ensure that it remains effective and adaptable. Only this proactive approach enables institutions to withstand challenges and to initiate meaningful change.
Referring back to the example of education: resilient institutions must be prepared to adapt by incorporating new topics and approaches into their educational systems constantly. They will find it necessary to run continuous needs assessments. They should see themselves as integral parts of a dynamic process.
National, regional and local governments will of course play a defining role here, but EU institutions will be challenged as well: to act as a platform for exchange of knowledge and for monitoring countries’ needs.
FutuRes’ research identifies the drivers of resilience and change in increasingly aging societies. By the end of 2025, the project will develop a set of policy recommendations to enhance the resilience of people and institutions in Europe. The project results will provide clear and actionable pathways, preparing policymakers for the most likely challenges of the coming decades.