Resilience of a Territory: Concept, Measurement, Governance

Abstract—The paper considers problems of adequate interpretation of the term resilience in relation to the term sustainable development and offers a consistent holistic system of concepts based on the term shock resistance (shokoustoichivost’), which allows to discuss the problems of sustainable development and resilience (without mixing these terms). The directions for creating a methodology for measuring resilience are proposed, based on a study of theoretical and methodological approaches and existing attempts to measure the resilience of cities and regions. The article describes existing Russian examples of measuring the resilience of regions a posteriori (by analyzing the behavior of indicators of socioeconomic development during and after economic and budgetary crises) and a priori (based on the characteristics of industry structure or risk resistance of the economic, social, and governance subsystems of a region). A paradox is noted: in Russia, subsidization of a region and a backward structure of the economy are factors that increase resilience. Ways are shown to embed mechanisms for increasing resilience in the strategic governance system of urban and regional development. It is proposed to introduce resilience auditing into management practice and create a regional (municipal) risk-management system and the position of a risk manager.