Why Study Resilience?

The issue of resilience in the face of adversity is emerging as an important topic across several disciplinary boundaries not only in  psychology and education but also in political sociology and European studies.  This conference will explore the multiple ways in which Europe has responded political, culturally, and socially to the financial crisis beginning in 2008.  This roundtable will explore a related but distinctive concern:  how do analysts of European resilience to the crisis see their scholarship?  Is it merely documenting expressions of resilence, or celebrating them, perhaps contributing to them, or maybe calling attention to their limitations and perhaps ultimate failure?  And resilience for whom: institutions, citizens, groups, etc.?  In short,  what do Europeanist scholars hope to contribute and to whom in their scholarly work on the question of resilience?   This is a variation on the classic question scholarship & public engagement question raised in the social sciences from their beginning.  This roundtable will assemble several experienced European scholars to reflect on this question