Societal Impacts on Resilience

This Chapter critically attempts to gauge societal impacts on individual resilience and thus the involuntary basis, infeasibility, and unreasonableness of resilience. Societal impacts examined were those of caring, social exclusion, peace, violence, and pragmatism perceived in society and social inclusion experienced. Notably, pragmatism is relevant to resilience because it furnishes the orientation toward solving problems or tackling adversities. These impacts reflect the deterministic mechanisms of the analytical-functionalist framework. Analysis of poverty survey data on the public showed that caring in society had a significant and strong positive effect on resilience, and social exclusion in society exerted a significant and strong negative effect on resilience. Moreover, social inclusion experienced did not manifest a significant effect on resilience. That is, the effects of caring and social exclusion in society preempted the effect of social inclusion experienced. Meanwhile, analysis of violence survey data on the public revealed that pragmatism in society, but not peace and violence in society, exerted a significant inverse effect on resilience. Overall, the significant societal impacts reflect the deterministic force on resilience. This force demonstrates the social influences on resilience.