Sustainable development and transformative resilience: a two-way link

This chapter outlines the dynamic leading societies towards a sustainable development in case of shocks, structural changes and transitions. By decomposing key societal components and assigning a function to households, individuals and institutions, it integrates all the elements to show a complex system characterized by non-linearities and tipping points, with the goal to shape societal well-being for the current and future generations. In this perspective, resilience is intertwined with sustainability as it represents the ability to cope towards distress and to find the right balance between absorption, adaptation and transformation abilities such as to stay or go towards a sustainable development path. Resilience is not always an inner ability, but it can be developed and sustained through policy interventions, to enhance capacities and reduce vulnerabilities. Prevention, preparation, protection, promotion and transformation measures can steer countries, as well as individuals and companies, towards the sustainable pattern. When shocks occur, transformative resilience is key to allow our society to “bounce forward” (and not “back”) towards a better and more sustainable development path. The chapter brings some concrete examples of resilience measures adopted by the European Union (EU) over the last years.

BENCZUR Peter;  CARIBONI Jessica;  GIOVANNINI Enrico;  MANCA Anna Rita; 

2026-02-23

Emerald Publishing Limited

JRC139148

978-1-83608-972-8 (online),   

0733-558X (online),   

https://www.emerald.com/books/edited-volume/21007/chapter/108445086/Sustainable-Development-and-Transformative,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC139148,   

10.1108/978-1-83608-972-8 (online),