Resilience is conceptualized as a dynamic developmental process encompassing the attainment of positive adaptation despite the exposure to or the experience of significant threat, severe adversity, or trauma that typically constitute major assaults on the processes underlying biological and psychological development (Luthar, Cicchetti & Becker, 2000; Masten & Cicchetti, 2016). The notion of an average expectable environment for promoting normal development connotes that there is a species-specific range of environmental conditions that elicit normal development in humans. Concerns about how childhood adversity impacts developmental processes and mechanisms have captured deep concerns in researchers in the fields of developmental and clinical psychology, developmental psychopathology, evolutionary psychology, molecular genetics, and neuroscience. Child maltreatment exemplifies a pathogenic relational environment that is far beyond the range of what is normally encountered and engenders substantial risk for maladaptation across domains of biological and psychological development. Child maltreatment is implicated in the disruption of multiple biological systems, including neuroendocrine and immunological functioning, neurobiology, and physical and mental health outcomes. Nonetheless, even though there is strong scientific evidence for maladaptation associated with maltreatment, the absence of an average expectable environment does not condemn maltreated children to negative developmental outcomes later in life. Resilience is possible across the life course.

This overview opens with the story of the great fire in Glarus, Switzerland, in 1861. Like those in other cities, the fire brought into clear view key elements of the insurance systems that modern societies needed to foster resilience. In its aftermath, the role of public authorities changed, reliance on new techniques for mobilizing private capital rose significantly, and the interaction of markets and states across established borders became deeper and more complex.

1. What can social work educators do to help students with mental health issues? 2. What kinds of resources are needed to help social workers recover from childhood adversity? 3. What are the human rights issues in this story?

1. Reflect on the power of personal stories. How can telling your own story of becoming a social worker help others engage in the profession? 2. In this story, the author writes about burnout and the need for a self- reflective practice. Think about how a self-reflective practice can be carried out. 3. In what way can an active relationship with your own social work story be helpful in your everyday practice?

The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and the V20 group of finance ministers address climate change impacts on vulnerable countries. This chapter introduces the interconnectedness of climate justice, economic resilience, and sustainable development. It highlights personal stories, such as Victor Yalanda from Colombia and Jevanic Henry from Saint Lucia, who share their experiences of climate change’s impacts on their communities — covering both the economic loss and the emotional devastation caused to communities. We introduce the CVF’s Climate Vulnerability Monitor — a unique study of the impacts of climate change, including fresh modelling, covering biophysical, economics and health projections up to 2100. The global community via COP27 and COP28 have agreed on the urgency of both adaptation and mitigation strategies. Yet the speed of change is not sufficient. The fate of today’s most vulnerable will soon be the fate of the world.

The growth and impact of urban environmental problems can manifest as significant stress and eventual crises for cities and their residents. The focus of this chapter is on how and why these stressors and crises are addressed in cities and the conditions under which the crises can eventually result in significant environmental policy transitions and follow-on transformations. Several different types of documented urban crises (including ecological-resource, urban spatial development, socio-economic, and extreme events) are discussed and analyzed in the chapter. Social, environmental/ecological, and infrastructural/technological drivers influence the connection between urban environmental stress, crisis, transition, and transformation. The actual mechanisms that set up and orchestrate the transition process reflect the resilience of the existing environmental and policy management regime and the magnitude of the stress and crisis. The chapter focuses on describing each of the steps in the transition and the mechanisms that connect each step, as well as the key terms and concepts associated with the process. The importance of policy system tipping points or regime shifts is illustrated.

This chapter invites readers to consider how an engagement with hip-hop music and culture can contribute to a better understanding of mental health, psychiatry, psychology, public health, and neuroscience. It provides an introduction to hip-hop therapy, highlighting the use of rap by psychologists and counsellors to promote mental well-being. The chapter goes on to examine the work that the Hip-Hop Psych initiative has undertaken in advancing the role of hip-hop in primary care. With hip-hop’s pre-eminence as a global musical force, greater attention to how mental health is represented in hip-hop can provide healthcare professionals with tools to aid discussions with patients about potential trends related to hip-hop icons, such as contagion effects of suicide, self-harm, and self-medication. Hip-hop offers a platform for artists and those who embrace the culture to address their emotional experiences through rap. By exploring lyrical content, the chapter uncovers how performers express their mental health challenges and fashion resilience within challenging circumstances. It argues that attention to this material could also help identify language disturbances associated with mental health conditions, and indicates the potential gains from the use of technology and neuroscientific research to support hip-hop music interventions.

Chapter 10 questions whether law should widen its lens to address general appearance discrimination too. Would a protected characteristic of appearance offer viable legal rights to the many millions of us who do not have a disfigurement but are less-than-beautiful in some way? For example, is appearance objective enough to be adjudicated in law? Is a clear distinction between mutable and immutable aspects of appearance important – or even possible given increasing medico-cosmetic opportunities to change the way our bodies look? Do we have an unobjectionable nomenclature to describe appearance and attractiveness in legal terms? And could we swallow well-meaning employers’ attempts to measure the attractiveness of their staff for the purposes of diversity monitoring? The discussion draws on examples of comparative laws in France and America. Both countries have adopted wider conceptions of appearance equality, and America’s laws have seen a recent period of growth, with Binghampton, New York, the latest to vote such a law onto its statute books in 2023. However, both sets of laws remain little used so far, despite evidence showing that appearance discrimination remains prevalent. How could we ensure that a protected characteristic of appearance in the UK avoided a similar fate?

This chapter focuses on the fact that a major difference between a change in an international order and a change of international order is that the scope and depth of the former are not as great as those of the latter—in other words, change unfolding in an international system is somewhat circumscribed. To reflect on a change in the international order and what this means for its legitimacy, this chapter focuses on three points. First, it examines some of the characteristics that facilitate change in an international system and what this implies for the sense of legitimacy. Second, it mentions the reforms that an international order and its legitimacy can adopt to respond to evolving pressures, alluding to the stress faced by the current international system in the last few years. Third, this chapter ends with an overview of the systemic risk to which the present international system is exposed.

This chapter focuses on systemic factors in healthcare systems and how these can promote qualities such as mindfulness, awareness, resilience, and compassion. Too often, health systems do not promote these values at the organisational level despite the best efforts of individual healthcare workers. With attention and awareness, however, this can be remedied. This chapter examines the themes of compassionate leadership in healthcare organisations, resilience in these settings, and specific approaches that healthcare professionals can take to increase compassion across the healthcare systems in which we work. These steps include: (a) leading by example to promote compassionate behaviour for better care; (b) supporting the well-being of colleagues and staff we manage; (c) fostering open communication across clinical and managerial teams; (d) including patients and families in decision-making and valuing their perspectives; (e) promoting teamwork and collaboration that are inclusive, adaptive, and resilient; (f) recognising and rewarding compassionate care, both formally and informally; and (g) making self-compassion a key organisational value: health care is challenging, we are all human, and self-compassion is the basis of compassion for others.

This chapter focuses on resilience and compassion, starting by examining the relevance of resilience in healthcare, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter notes that while a certain amount of resilience is helpful and even essential, resilience depends on not only the personal characteristics of each healthcare worker, but also the conditions in which they work. Relevant factors include the structure and function of teams, models of organisation, quality of leadership, and resources. These matters have an enormous influence on individual experiences, attitudes, and behaviour, and on the levels of resilience that are required and accessible in the workplace, as well as compassion. This chapter considers the concepts of ‘compassion fatigue’ and ‘burnout’, and outlines barriers to, and facilitators of, compassionate care. Systemic challenges include competing system demands, time constraints, inadequate resources, communication issues, poor emotional connections with the broader healthcare system, and the perception and/or reality of staff not being valued for the care they provide. These are themes that resonate with many people who work in large healthcare systems where organisational challenges loom large, often distracting focus from day-to-day patient care. This chapter also examines the roles of mindfulness and meditation in navigating these challenges.