Four dimensions
of resilience

The Vocabulary is organised around four dimensions of resilience. They help readers approach different social experiences not as a list of countries, but as a map of mechanisms. Each concept has a primary dimension, showing where its resilience mechanism mainly operates.

Individual

Survive

The individual capacity to withstand pressure, danger, loss, grief, or prolonged uncertainty. This is not about glorifying suffering, but about the ways in which people preserve agency, dignity, inner stability, and the ability to continue living even when external conditions remain unstable.

Examples of concepts
- Dârzenie
  Romania
- Nintai
  Japan
- Sisu
  Finland
Institutions

Act

Practices, models, and institutional mechanisms that allow communities, services, organisations, and public systems to continue functioning during crisis: preparedness, coordination, adaptation, responsibility, and the maintenance of critical functions under strain.

Examples of concepts
- Civic volunteerism
  United States
- Getting on with it
  United Kingdom
- Polder model
  Netherlands
- Prostovoljno gasilstvo
  Slovenia
- Šauliai
  Lithuania
- Solidarność
  Poland
- Sozialpartnerschaft
  Austria
- Tiigrihüpe
  Estonia
- Totalförsvar
  Sweden
- Tripartite
  Luxembourg
Community

Stay Together

What sustains social bonds during crisis: trust, mutual support, belonging, care, solidarity, and the ability to act together. At its centre is the community as a source of support, coordination, and recovery, so that individuals do not have to face pressure alone.

Examples of concepts
- Arevut hadadit
  Israel
- Ayni
  Peru
- Bayanihan
  Philippines
- Besa
  Albania
- Candombe
  Uruguay
- Convivencia
  Spain
- Dugnad
  Norway
- Guancasco
  Honduras
- Harambee
  Kenya
- İmece
  Türkiye
- Jeong
  Republic of Korea
- Kampung spirit
  Singapore
- Mateship
  Australia
- Meitheal
  Ireland
- Samfundssind
  Denmark
- Slava
  Serbia
- Tereré / Pohã ñana
  Paraguay
- Ubuntu
  South Africa
Culture

Make Meaning

How societies work with pain, loss, danger, and traumatic experience. It concerns memory, culture, responsibility, moral orientation, and the ability to transform what has been lived through not only into a recollection of the past, but also into a basis for future action.

Examples of concepts
- Erinnerungskultur
  Germany
- Maradiuli ghirebulebebi
  Georgia
- Pravda vítězí
  Czechia
- Sophiynist
  Ukraine
- Teatro comunitario
  Argentina
- Utz k’aslemal
  Guatemala
- Zartonk
  Armenia

Four dimensions of resilience

Survive

Act

Stay Together

Make Meaning

Four dimensions
of resilience