Promoting Resilience

"In Promoting Resilience Thompson and Cox offer insight into a wide range of contexts in which resilience is relevant. They uniquely apply both a sociological perspective and a practice focus to the study of resilience and in so doing significantly deepen understanding of this complex topic." — Susan E. Wright, PhD, professor emerita of sociology, Drake University, USA

"Promoting Resilience fulfills the lofty objective of its title, bringing together a truly global team to prepare essays that draw upon each other's work. We learn practical ways to be more resilient and to help those in our communities and social networks to thrive the crises that come with life. The contributors draw upon examples from the everyday workplace to locales ranging from a schoolyard in Scotland to the Outback in Australia. The reader is left with insight into the role of community and social capital in overcoming adversity, vulnerability, loss, and grief." — Richard T. Schaefer, Department of Sociology, DePaul University, USA

"Thompson and Cox have assembled a team of scholars that have collectively applied the concept of resilience in concise and thought-provoking ways to a range of situations that produce ontological insecurity. In so doing, they have succeeded in addressing the challenge posed by Joel Best in his foreword, which is to prove the value of this relatively new concept." — Peter Kivisto, Augustana College, USA

"Promoting Resilience makes an important contribution to the literature on bereavement, loss, death and dying and is a valuable addition to the field of mental health more generally. It will engage students, practitioners, professionals, as well as scholars and anyone else interested in how we as humans confront and survive adversity. The book’s main point, presented in an excellent and thorough introductory chapter, is to challenge the common understanding of resilience as an individual trait or achievement. In contrast, the book re-positions resilience as a complex, multi-dimensional, socially constructed product of communities, families, institutions, and cultures, plus myriad care professionals and informal helpers. Throughout the book’s 30 chapters, a range of contributors elaborate on this perspective with sociological theory and compelling examples from some of the most troubling societal problems and crises of our time. Seeing resilience as a social-cultural phenomenon adds a significant dimension to the discussion of how we respond to tragedy and adversity and helps point the way forward toward better preparation and outcomes. As such, this book is a fresh and welcome addition to the literature." — Mary Zimmerman, professor of health policy and sociology, University of Kansas, USA