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The checkered rise of resilience: anticipating risks of nature in Switzerland and Germany since 1800
Der Aufstieg der Resilienz: die Antizipation von Naturrisiken in der Schweiz und in Deutschland seit 1800
[journal article]
Abstract Both concepts, prevention and resilience, are ways of thinking and acting that are very similar at first glance. Prevention means optimising the present by anticipating the future. Crucial for the idea and practice of prevention is anticipating a risky future that should never become reality. Resili... view more
Both concepts, prevention and resilience, are ways of thinking and acting that are very similar at first glance. Prevention means optimising the present by anticipating the future. Crucial for the idea and practice of prevention is anticipating a risky future that should never become reality. Resilience describes a less radical manner of behaviour, which does not want to prevent risks per se. It stresses the ability to anticipate danger and to resist damage - if possible without losses. The terms "prevention" and "resilience" are still relatively young and have appeared infrequently in systems ecology, criminology and medicine since the early twentieth century. This article detaches both concepts from these fields and examines their heuristic potential with the example of natural disasters. In order to shed light on the history of prevention and resilience, the essay focuses on various agents with their specific strategies and techniques. So beside the history of hydraulic engineering, it presents other examples from weather control, scenario planning and disaster research to insurance business. It argues that latest in the second half of the twentieth century arguments for prevention lost their credibility as risks during the technological change multiplied constantly. Strategies of resilience, however, seemed far more realistic in a phase of risk pluralization and replaced the paradigm of prevention in many areas. Yet prevention did not fully disappear, but rather became a part of the much wider overall strategy of resilience. (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
research; control; hydropower; environmental impact; prevention; Federal Republic of Germany; historical development; environmental protection; insurance; resilience; Switzerland; climate protection; twentieth century; natural disaster; nineteenth century
Classification
Ecology, Environment
Social History, Historical Social Research
Document language
English
Publication Year
2016
Page/Pages
p. 240-262
Journal
Historical Social Research, 41 (2016) 1
Issue topic
Risk as an analytical category: selected studies in the social history of the twentieth century
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.41.2016.1.240-262
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed