We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilience

In this analysis, we argue against seeing health system resilience as an inherently positive concept. The rise in the popularity of health system resilience has led to its increasingly normative framing. We question this widely accepted perspective by examining the underlying assumptions associated...

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Main Authors: Stephanie M Topp, Dell D Saulnier
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2024-02-01
Series:BMJ Global Health
Online Access:https://gh.bmj.com/content/9/2/e014041.full
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author Stephanie M Topp
Dell D Saulnier
author_facet Stephanie M Topp
Dell D Saulnier
author_sort Stephanie M Topp
collection DOAJ
description In this analysis, we argue against seeing health system resilience as an inherently positive concept. The rise in the popularity of health system resilience has led to its increasingly normative framing. We question this widely accepted perspective by examining the underlying assumptions associated with this normative framing of ‘good’ resilience. Our focus is on the risks of accepting the assumption, which can lead us to ignore the social nature of health systems and overlook the consequences of change if resilience is seen as a positive, achievable objective. Finally, we suggest that seeing resilience as a normative concept can be detrimental to health system policy and research, and encourage a critical rethinking of these assumptions so that we can maintain resilience’s usefulness for health systems.
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spelling doaj-art-7e15631cb4c44e63b62928ad83e91d5c2025-08-20T02:41:20ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Global Health2059-79082024-02-019210.1136/bmjgh-2023-014041We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilienceStephanie M Topp0Dell D Saulnier11 College of Public Health, Medical & Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, AustraliaDepartment of Clinical Sciences Malmö, Lund University, Lund, SwedenIn this analysis, we argue against seeing health system resilience as an inherently positive concept. The rise in the popularity of health system resilience has led to its increasingly normative framing. We question this widely accepted perspective by examining the underlying assumptions associated with this normative framing of ‘good’ resilience. Our focus is on the risks of accepting the assumption, which can lead us to ignore the social nature of health systems and overlook the consequences of change if resilience is seen as a positive, achievable objective. Finally, we suggest that seeing resilience as a normative concept can be detrimental to health system policy and research, and encourage a critical rethinking of these assumptions so that we can maintain resilience’s usefulness for health systems.https://gh.bmj.com/content/9/2/e014041.full
spellingShingle Stephanie M Topp
Dell D Saulnier
We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilience
BMJ Global Health
title We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilience
title_full We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilience
title_fullStr We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilience
title_full_unstemmed We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilience
title_short We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilience
title_sort we need to talk about bad resilience
url https://gh.bmj.com/content/9/2/e014041.full
work_keys_str_mv AT stephaniemtopp weneedtotalkaboutbadresilience
AT delldsaulnier weneedtotalkaboutbadresilience