The Resilience Dividend

October 6, 2014
Rockefeller Foundation president Rodin writes in an expert and straightforward manner about the character trait of resilience, addressed here in socioeconomic terms and on nothing less than a global scale. Resilience, Rodin explains, is the ability to “prepare for disruptions... recover from shocks and stresses, and... adapt and grow from a disruptive experience.” The three primary such disruptions she identifies in today’s world are “urbanization, climate change, and globalization.” Rodin goes on to break down resilience into five characteristics, solidifying her argument with solid examples. The characteristics of resilience include “Aware,” as seen in the aftermath of flash flooding in San Francisco in January 2004; “Integrated,” exemplified by the success of M&M’s in markets throughout the world; and “Adaptive,” as embodied by many of New Orleans’s African-American and Vietnamese-American residents following Hurricane Katrina. She also illustrates “Diverse” and “Self-Regulating” through the illuminating, respective counterexamples of fitness retailer Lululemon’s over-reliance on a single fabric source and the mistakes that led to the Chernobyl disaster. While every author may hope to end a book with an indelible sentence, Rodin proves herself one of the select few who can pull this off. Agent: Todd Shuster, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary.

Starred review from October 15, 2014
A revealing examination of the anatomy of resilience, the capacity to withstand and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses. Rodin, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which launched the 100 Resilient Cities project in 2013, explains why resilience matters and analyzes its components: awareness of assets, liabilities and vulnerabilities; diversity of sources of capacity; integration of functions and actions; the ability to self-regulate; and the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances. Firmly convinced that resilience can be learned, Rodin demonstrates how to build it and how it works through an array of stories from around the world. She shows how the disruptive factors of climate change, urbanization and globalization intertwine and how resilience can withstand these threats. Her stories explore the three phases of resilience-readiness, responsiveness and revitalization-and describe the resilience dividend, the ability to build new relationships, seize new opportunities and take on new endeavors. Many of her examples involve natural disasters: the earthquake and fire in San Francisco in 1906, the tsunami at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, and hurricanes Katrina in New Orleans and Sandy in New York. Rodin also looks at the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as crime and poverty in Medellin, Colombia. That story shows how Medellin, once considered the murder capital of the world and now on the Rockefeller list of 100 Resilient Cities, is successfully addressing its problems and moving forward. The author focuses not just on the thinking and actions of various government agencies, but on the efforts of communities, civic groups, businesses, individuals, clubs and other organizations and the tools and technologies that were employed. She clearly shows what went right and what went wrong and what can be learned from past experiences. A convincing argument that becoming resilient is not only possible, but essential; food for thought for all and especially recommended for community leaders.

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November 1, 2014

Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, writes about the qualities needed to prepare and survive disasters--natural or man made. The author calls this "resilience" and beyond this is what she identifies as the "resilience dividend," an idea that goes further than recovery and survivability to actual growth and success. In a sense, not unlike the idiom to "go through fire and water," the resilience dividend is when disaster instigates revolutionary improvement in an individual, community, organization, or nature. Rodin outlines five characteristics of resilience: awareness, adaptability, diversity, integration, and self-regulation. Using specific examples of recovery, including the aftermaths of Colombia's drug war, California's 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the founding of Best Buy, the author describes the characteristics that provide the framework in which the resilience dividend emerges. Building on these characteristics in greater depth, Rodin explores important concepts such as readiness and responsiveness along with the importance of other factors, for example leadership and social cohesion. VERDICT Rodin's narrative is an inspiring and optimistic look at what humankind can do to respond to what appear insurmountable challenges. Recommended to readers interested in urban planning, organizational management, and environmental and social catastrophes.--Scott Vieira, Sam Houston State Univ. Lib., Huntsville, TX

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2014
Given how interconnected the world is today, it is no surprise that disasters, from violent storms to a new virus strain to a cyber attack, can have immediate and widespread consequences, leaving individuals and institutions scrambling to recover and rebuild. For years the Rockefeller Foundation has been studying resilience. When Superstorm Sandy hit New York in 2012, all its findings were put to the test. Rodin, president of the foundation, takes an insightful look at what is known as the resilience dividend, opportunities that come out of disasters and make for progress whether or not another occurs. Drawing on psychology, engineering, and ecology, Rodin examines disasters from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan to the Boston Marathon bombing to the reputation for murder and drug trafficking in Medellin, Colombia. The objective is to study how the affected cities as well as corporations, governments, communities, and individuals have responded and recovered from disasters. Rodin explores the three phases of resilience buildingreadiness, responsiveness, and revitalizationfor lessons learned that can be applied to building a resilience dividend.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)