The boundaries of building societal resilience: responsibilization and Swiss Civil defense in the Cold War

摘要: Resilience has become a dominant paradigm in wide range of risk and security agendas. In this article we describe the modes which resilience approaches domain civil protection responsibilize social actors citizens to ‘do their part’. We also examine some problems such attempts ‘make people resilient’ might raise. Specifically, by using an historical case study Swiss defense system as example illustrating how political agenda can be used proliferate individual responsibility for societal safety through instruction, argue that measures labeled ‘resilience-building’ easily fail meet stated goals. Policies aiming at building top-down fashion becoming counterproductive, especially if public policy aims persuade or ‘nudge’ perceptions behavior, feel manipulated scared. It appears imperative address ethical boundaries resilience-building efforts order understand improve effectiveness democratic legitimacy current policies.