October 2013
abstract
Responsabilité & Environnement
La résilience : plus qu'une mode ?
Issue editor:
Dominique DRON
Issue 72
Editorial
By Pierre COUVEINHES
Rédacteur en chef des Annales des Mines
1. Why has the concept of resilience become so important?
Resilience of, to and for what?
By Michel JUFFÉ
Philosophe, ancien conseiller du Vice-président du Conseil général de l’Environnement et du Développement durable (CGEDD) – Ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie, président du conseil scientifique de l’AFPCN (association française pour la prévention des catastrophes naturelles)
“Resilient” is too often used as a qualifier applied to anything: to be fit, a person, institution, land or firm needs but be resilient. However an entity of whatever sort can be resilient – or shock-resistant – only as a function of what it deems necessary or worth preserving from eventual deterioration or destruction. A precondition for this is to precisely identify the sources of danger and mobilize the means for coping, lest the word “resilient” merely amount to media hype or a cheap form of self-satisfaction. In each case, three questions should be asked: resilience… of what? for what? to what?
Resilience, a public policy objective and tool: Its appearance in France and prospects
By Dominique DRON
Ingénieure générale des Mines, agrégée de Sciences naturelles
After being mainly used in science (since the 1960s) and then shifting to refer to ecosystems threatened by human activities, the word “resilience” has been cropping up in official texts and speeches in French since the turn of the century — even as events linked to the climate, economy and geopolitics signal a new era with unprecedented conditions. Given this context perceived as a menace by society, usage of this word has broadened. It now suggests new ways for understanding and managing phenomena based on contrasting the set “system-cooperation-resilience-long run” with “sector-competition-performance-now”, whence the need for new tools, even in finance and the realm of symbols.
Forms of resilience: Ambiguities and expectations
By Serge TISSERON
Psychiatre, docteur en psychologie, directeur de recherches à l’Université Paris VII Denis Diderot, Président fondateur de l’Institut pour l’Histoire et la Mémoire des Catastrophes (IHMEC) et créateur du site memoiredescatastrophes.org
Serge TISSERON, Psychiatre, docteur en psychologie, directeur de recherches à l’Université Paris VII Denis Diderot, Président fondateur de l’Institut pour l’Histoire et la Mémoire des Catastrophes (IHMEC) et créateur du site memoiredescatastrophes.org Although the word, present in France for about ten years now, has been so overused that some people are reluctant to use it, it would be a shame were we to give up on “resilience”. Once defined with all its versatile meanings, this word seems to provide us with a single concept for understanding several disturbing events. It thus resembles use of the concept “renaissance” to refer to the events that shaped Europe between 1450 and 1550. Like the Renaissance, the current period is marked by major scientific and technological discoveries and by new forms of awareness that entail deep changes. A new attitude toward life is emerging that affects all disciplines and is shaping a new global landscape where the ability to bounce back from trials and hardships is a key value.
The sustainable and unsustainable in relation to resilience and geostrategy
By Jean-Michel VALANTIN
Docteur en études stratégiques, spécialiste de Géostratégie environnementale
Resilience has become a theme in debates about not only sustainable development but also national defense and security. We thus see how contemporary societies have, since the end of the Cold War, become aware of their vulnerability. The understanding of this vulnerability has evolved along with the geostrategic context. The latter has been determined, for a long time, by nuclear deterrence but, in recent years, by a juncture of factors having to do with societal fragility, scarcer resources and climate change. This chain of strategic factors has put the fate of humanity at stake and, for sixty years now, motivated usage of the word “resilience”. The current situation, where human and environmental disequilbria are accumulating, has become a major issue in discussions about resilience.
2. Resilience and vulnerability: Coping by sector, or globally?
After Fukushima: The resilience of nuclear power plants must be reinforced
By Jean-Christophe NIEL
Directeur général de l’Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN)
Despite the safety measures adopted to design, build and operate nuclear installations, the risk of accidents can never be eliminated. It is, therefore, worthwhile to regularly plan, test and overhaul the arrangements for coping with a radioactive emergency, even the most improbable one. The French Nuclear Security Authority (ASN) is overseeing the implementation of a procedure for continuously improving safety at nuclear power plants so as to prevent accidents and limit their consequences. Following the Fukushima catastrophe, the ASN imposed significantly tighter safety margins by, in particular, establishing a “hard core” of measures for making installations more robust in extreme situations.
Local resilience: An initial diagnosis
By Jean-Michel TANGUY
Conseiller du directeur de la Recherche et de l’Innovation au ministère de l’ Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’ Énergie
Jean-Michel TANGUY, Conseiller du directeur de la Recherche et de l’Innovation au ministère de l’ Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’ Énergie and Anne CHARREYRON-PERCHET, Chargée de mission stratégique Ville durable – Commissariat général au Développement durable Ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie ( MEDDE/CGDD) Given a context marked by socioeconomic changes and the increasing vulnerability of local areas to natural, technological or health hazards, resilience is necessary for moving beyond crises and helping local authorities work out a long-term view that envisions risks as well as the local forces and potential for bouncing back after a crisis. By involving all stakeholders — elected officials, citizens, businesses — in anticipating events, strategies based on resilience can stimulate local areas and open new prospects for development. Beyond sectoral approaches, an integrated procedure must take under consideration the locality in all its dimensions: economic, social and environmental.
The vulnerability and resilience of networks during natural catastrophes
By Laurent WINTER
Ingénieur général des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts (IGPEF), Conseil général de l’Environnement et du Développement durable, ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie
Laurent WINTER, Ingénieur général des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts (IGPEF), Conseil général de l’Environnement et du Développement durable, ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie Several major, recent natural catastrophes in Europe and the world have shed light on how vulnerable modern societies are to natural phenomena of major intensity. Technological developments and the interdependence of networks could be aggravating factors in emergencies of this sort. Public authorities have, till now, preferred restrictions on building permits; and network operators have the duty to see to it that, in a crisis, the population’s basic needs are satisfied and operations resume as soon as possible, eventually in stages. Although all stakeholders take into account “classical” risks such as floods or earthquakes, disturbances of the climate with increasing frequency and intensity (storms, heavy precipitation, extreme temperatures) are emerging risks for which strategies based on resilience must be worked out. In addition, a thorough socioeconomic assessment of programs based on resilience should be made.
The resilience of societies seen through the insurance industry — A international comparison
By Roland NUSSBAUM
Directeur (depuis sa création en 2000) de la Mission des sociétés d’assurance pour la connaissance et la prévention des risques naturels (www.mrn.asso.fr )
Insurance is the major financial tool that households and businesses can use to reinforce their resilience for coping with catastrophes. Why are inhabitants, businessmen and local authorities with equivalent risk profiles and standards of living placed in quite different situations with respect to resilience? Can these differences be set down to the local characteristics of insurance, in particular the degree of market penetration? History is repeating itself. After every large-scale disaster, these questions re-ignite the debate about how to make insurance a more accessible and affordable means of prevention for everyone — at the level of the nation, the EU and UN. A few methods for international comparisons are proposed before a conclusion is drawn about how international actions could cause positions to change in matters related to risk-sharing.
3. Resilience, culture and institutional practices
Resilience and adaptation to climate changes: A global question or a sectoral problem?
By Nicolas BÉRIOT
Secrétaire général de l’Observatoire national sur les effets du réchauffement climatique (ONERC)
Adaptation is a necessity for dealing with climate change (a now confirmed phenomenon) and its predicted intensification. It lies at the center of sectoral and broader analyses conducted at various geographical scales. Given the uncertainty surrounding the future climate and our systemic weaknesses, these studies lead to developing resilience — to actions that, beyond deterministic measures, seek to foster an “aptitude to adapt” to various future possibilities. Society can come out of this process of preparing for an adaptation to climate change stronger and more robust, better aware of its margins of maneuver and its limitations, fitter for taking advantage of new contexts. There are, however, limits to the adaptation of natural and human systems. Protecting the “climate system” by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases is still a top priority.
Resilience and the adaptability of ecosystems
By Robert BARBAULT
Professeur émérite à l’Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris
Ecology, the science of interactions between living beings and their environment, emerged at the start of the 20th century. It has been marked by the ideal of an equilibrium. Introduced by Darwin, the idea of the adaptability of organisms and species and of the systems they form with their environment opened the way for the concept of resilience to gradually evolve. The emergence of the topic of biodiversity following the Rio-de-Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, along with current concerns about global changes and the waning of biodiversity, has revived interest in resilience as a property attributed to communities of species or ecosystems. Attention has thus been focused on the sudden upheaval when a state of equilibrium shifts.
Resilience and identity: What does ethnology tell us about the economic resilience of contemporary societies?
By Hervé JUVIN
Président d’Eurogroup Institute
Ethnology calls into question developed societies’ widely shared certitudes because it describes the resilience of “other” societies and the conditions for it. Some of its conclusions contradict the prevailing economic dogma, and others strongly criticize, and thus warn us about, this dogma’s social and political effects. What if the price of our quest for infinite growth were an accelerated destruction of our societies and their cultures, and of civilizations in general?
Improving the conditions of urban resilience in a plural world: The challenges and a strategy under constraint
By Richard LAGANIER
Professeur de Géographie à l’Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, membre de l’UMR PRODIG, Président du Comité National Français de Géographie
The implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action, 2005, is intended to be a universal response for building cities that can bounce back from crises. This call for urban resilience, if it is not mere incantation or pure theory, urges us to delimit the concept so as to better understand the issues and their practical implications. How to propose a shared vision that, transcultural and universal, takes into account the variety of cultures and behaviors in the face of danger as well as the many local constraints that have arisen as the Hyogo framework is actually applied?