Territorial Resilience 

The ability to bounce back or to reorganise?

June 2021

As Europe shifts from crisis to recovery modus, there are increasing talks about resilience. The underlying question is, how could Europe, its countries and its regions become more resilient to possible future shocks.

The talks about resilience suggest, that the pandemic crisis has been lost as a chance for change to a 'new normal'. Indeed, the tendency is to try to go back to pre-pandemic ‘normal’, although it is widely accepted that this will not be possible, as the pandemic has left too many scares. This is a lost chance for a transition of our society, economy and value systems e.g. towards a more sufficient economy, reductive modernism or green Keynesianism, able to achieve a sustainable management of the commons (as opposed to the current ‘tragedy of the commons’) and keeping social disparities in check. In short, it is a lost opportunity to move towards resilience.