This paper presents findings from an interdisciplinary research effort studying community resilience in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder is a progressive region with a history of environmental leadership. The area is currently in the process of recovering from major flooding and has launched several new initiatives related to building long-term resilience to natural disasters and other stressors. In our research, we consider the stakeholders involved in building local resilience as well as the different and often contradictory framings of the concept. This study takes a phenomenological and inductive approach to understanding resilience. In contrast to more reductionist frameworks that are frequently offered, we argue that this allows for greater understanding of the polyvocal and emergent qualities of resilience.
Soden, R., Palen, L., Chase, C., Deniz, D., Arneson, E., Sprain, L., Goldstein, B., Liel, A., Javernick-Will, A., and Dashti, S. (2015). “The Polyvocality of Resilience: Discovering a Research Agenda through Interdisciplinary Investigation & Community Engagement." International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Kristiansand, Norway.