Purpose- This paper aims to look at some of the evidence that supports the construct of reselience and the operationalisation of the "phenomena" of reselience within contemporary society.The concept of reselience has become an ifluential and society-wide construct,embraced by the positive psychology movement and impacting on educational,health and social policy sigificantly and demonstrably.Importantly,the concept of resilience has a substantial historical heritage and legacy and the permeation of the construct within the collective social consciousness is rarely considered or queried,but generally accepted and embraced.Moreover,the consctruct of reselience within itself is invariably couched within contemporary discourse as a universal good and highly desirable and further still,considered by many as a fundamental component constributing to the fabric of an individual's character.
design/methodology/approach- The design of this paper is a short review of selective evidence of key conceptual issues.
Findings- Reselience as a concept,is defuse,generally ill-defined and highly subjective.The concept of reselience,though popular and intinsic to a number of aspect of public and educational policy,remains controversial,provides an explanatory account of differential outcomes which may not a;ways be positive and,importantly,my potentially disenfranchise the individual.
Orginality/value- The synthesis of the breif and selective appraisal of evidence in this area suggest that the concept of resilience,if it exist at all,is highly mercurial,ambiguous in definition and despite its omnipresence as a representation of a positive and internalised attribution to the individual,has a significant negative side which is seldom considered.Querying the concept my represent a social heresy,however,the balance of evidence would suggest a debate about the concept is long overdue and,moreover the concept itself provides a useful fulcrum to consider where beliefs,attitudes and oppinions about abstract concepts stop and science,evidence and fact-based reflection begin.