The concept of resilience which originally emerged in psychology has spread to numerous
disciplines and was further developed particularly in social ecology. Resilience experiences an
ongoing growing reception in the humanities and historical and social sciences as well
including heterogenic approaches on how to conceptually frame resilience. Common to these
approaches is that resilience becomes topical in the context of analysing phenomena and
processes of the 'resistibility' of certain (socio-historical) units or actors which are
perceived as being faced with various constellations of disruptive change. In this context
resilience is not only taken to mean the opposite of vulnerability but at the same time
resilience and vulnerability are understood as complementary concepts. From this perspective
vulnerability is a necessary condition of resilience and vice versa. Against this background
the present volume provides a preliminary appraisal of socio-scientific and historical
resilience research by assembling contributions of authors originating from different
disciplines. Thus it fosters an interdisciplinary discussion on the theoretical and analytical
potentials as well as the empirical applicability of the concept of resilience.
ContentsStrategies Dispositions and Resources - Theoretical contributions - Medieval case
studies - Reflections and General Comments The EditorsDr. Martin Endreß is Professor for
General Sociology at the University of Trier. Dr. Lukas Clemens is Professor for Medieval
History at the University of Trier. Dr. Benjamin Rampp is research assistant for General
Sociology at the University of Trier.
