ABADEJOS, Alyanna Joyce S.

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PORESIL COMMENTARY 4
The Politicization of Resilience
Over the years, resilience has become popularized enough that it’s crossed over
from its original source in ecological studies to studies in engineering, psychology, and
politics (Davoudi et al., 2012). However, a growing concern is whether resilience may
place more harm than it does good in other fields, especially within politics as
government officials and hopefuls join the “resilience” bandwagon, including the term on
their platforms. In politics, this term can mean different things because of its ambiguous
nature. This characteristic has led to a number of criticism – it could become a tool for
the establishment of policies that while may good to some, are detrimental to others.
What further exacerbates this is the lack of public knowledge regarding the term. As an
example, my knowledge of resilience was that it was a positive thing – that it was a trait
that allowed people to withstand disasters, especially in a country prone to typhoons.
Whenever I’d see government projects or posts coining the term “resilience”, I would
attribute it as a positive adjective. However, the course has taught me that it’s not that
simple.
Resilience can also have negative connotations. Most notably, these negative
connotations can be observed in so-called “resilience” building through government
projects and policies. Vale (2014) pointed out the potential for inequality in projects
aimed to build resilience. For example, people are led astray from their flimsy homes in
areas potentially vulnerable to disasters. However, in the place of their homes,
profitable buildings and businesses which can better withstand disasters are put into
place (Vale & Gray, 2013). While low income residents were displaced from their
homes, others were able to profit from the opportunity. This is where politics comes into
resilience – “who gets what, when, and how”, as per Laswell’s definition (1936).
Including resilience into the narrative, it can be “who gets resilience, when, and how do
they become more resilient”. The negative connotations of resilience is highlighted
when inequality emerges as elites only become further resilient and often, these come
at the expense of others. Unfortunately, this is a reality for many people. After all,
people with power are the ones who can dictate which areas need further resilience.
And in particular, government officials with the authority to handle public funds and
resources are the ones who can foster resilience at high levels.
Holling as cited in Davoudi et al., (2012) discussed that resilience in the discipline
of engineering tend to be less complicated. With engineering studies, resilience is the
capacity to withstand disturbance and bounce back to the original, steady form.
Complications about whether the original form was undesirable from the very beginning
are rare. This varies from other types of resilience which takes into account one’s ability
to adapt and in some cases, evolve from adversity.
But does that mean resilience is better off confined to measuring the capacity of
buildings and infrastructure against disturbances? I think not. The ambiguity of
resilience in other fields – like politics – can also be its saving grace. If people can
observe resilience through the lens of politics, then they can use it as an analytical
framework, urging political participation from people as they ask both themselves and
public officials “who benefits”, “who loses”, and “how do we equate the losses of one
side so that both sides are treated fairly”.
At the end of the day, the truth that the government holds the most capability to
foster resilience remains. However, this does not mean that the people cannot
participate in their decisions. Avenues such as protests, lobbying, and social media
make it possible for citizens to argue against government choices. The people can also
have a say in “who gets resilience, when, and how they get resilience”. In order to do
that, the people have to learn a more in-depth understanding of resilience – even just
the basic concept of inevitable tradeoffs in resilience-building can give them a glimpse
at its vague nature. As a matter of fact, there are Filipinos who have already begun to
question the term as some citizens bring up the government’s nature to use the strength
of Filipino resilience as a silver lining for their failures in improving disaster risk
response and management (Libot, 2020; Tan as cited in ABS-CBN News, 2020).
An example of resilience-building that can provide a glimpse of positive resilience
building is the “Paradise City” in Sao Polo which takes into account the resilience needs
of multiple sectors (Vale, 2012). Acknowledging the presence of inequalities, their local
government made negotiations with both low-income residents and high-income
residents, allowing both to gain benefits. For those living in flood-prone areas, they built
public housing blocks that could withstand flooding while at the same time, ensuring that
rents were affordable. Moreover, city leaders allowed the area to have space for
commerce and businesses which the residents could work in. Albeit the situation is still
far from equity, Vale (2014) pointed out that resilience-building projects are more of a
continuous process rather than an end result.
Imperfect as their project may be, there’s still space for them to bridge gaps in
development. So long as they continue to understand and analyze the politics of
resilience and maintain a goal of attaining equality, they can become further progressive
while avoiding as much as possible, tradeoffs at the expense of those with less power.
 REFERENCES
ABS-CBN News. (2020, November 17). Ex-Up chancellor: Filipino resilience must not
be used to justify inaction in disasters. ABS-CBN.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/17/20/ex-up-chancellor-filipino-resilience-
must-not-be-used-to-justify-inaction-in-disasters.

Davoudi, S., Shaw, K., Haider, L. J., Quinlan, A. E., Peterson, G. D., Wilkinson, C.,
Fünfgeld, H., McEvoy, D., Porter, L., & Davoudi, S. (2012). Resilience: A Bridging
Concept or a Dead End? . Planning Theory & Practice, 13(2), 299–333.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2012.677124

Laswell, H. (1936). Politics: Who Gets What, When, How. Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Politics-Who-Gets-What-When-How.

Libot, J. (2020, November 12). As Filipino resilience gets exploited, netizens slam gov't
disaster response. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/moveph/filipino-resiliency-
exploited-netizens-slam-disaster-response-government-uselessph.
Vale, L. J. (2012). Discussion with community leaders and architects. Brazil: Paraiso´
polis, July.
Vale, L. J. (2014). The politics of resilient cities: whose resilience and whose city?
Building Research & Information, 42(2), 191–201.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2014.850602
Vale, L. J., & Gray, A. (2013). The displacement decathlon. Places.
http://places.designobserver.com/feature/displacement-decathlon-atlanta-rio-
olympics/37816/

PORESIL
Term 2 SY 2020-2021

Critical Commentary 4

Name: Alyanna Joyce S. Abadejos

CRITERIA BEGINNING DEVELOPING SATISFACTORY EXEMPLARY Grade
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