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Handbook of Community Well-Being Research pp 403–421Cite as

Distinguishing Flourishing from Distressed Communities: Vulnerability, Resilience and a Systemic Framework to Facilitate Well-Being

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Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

Abstract

In this chapter we expand the conceptualization of community well-being, the indicators used to measure it, and suggest fresh and more systemically comprehensive considerations for research and practice in distressed and flourishing communities. Past research has distinguished between distressed and flourishing communities in terms of quality-of-life (QOL) indicators: distressed communities tend to focus on basic needs of community residents (e.g., food, shelter, crime, unemployment, and security measures); flourishing communities on basic needs plus growth needs (e.g., sports, recreation, arts and culture, innovations, and leisure). We revisit the concept of flourishing in QOL studies and discuss concepts such as human flourishing, self-determination, psychological well-being, flow and engagement, and purpose and meaning in life. We then discuss concepts of community vulnerability and resilience and advance our own definition of flourishing versus distressed communities. A flourishing community is a recognizable assembly of people with shared values, cooperating to ensure clear evidence of positive physical, economic, environmental, and social well-being, which empower constituent members in their efforts to affect further prosocial outcomes for stakeholders of the community. A distressed community is essentially the converse. We then describe a systemic framework that captures the conditions within that interact to produce community well-being. These conditions involve marketing practices, consumption/demand, catalytic institutions (government, business, and NGOs), characteristics of the marketplace or citizen-stakeholders of it (location/access, income/wealth capital, social/cultural capital, situational commonalities, transparency/accountability, motivation, and market literacy/access), and macro factors (geo/environment, population, political/legal, economic, social/cultural, education, administration, infrastructure, and technology).

Without community, there is no liberation.

–Audre Lorde (Feminist and Civil Rights Activist)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For Definitions and Summary of research and measure classifications see both Füssel, H. (2007). Vulnerability: A generally applicable conceptual framework for climate change research. Global Environmental Change Part A: Human & Policy Dimensions, 17(2), 155–167 and Lei, Y., Wang, J., Yue, Y., Zhou, H., & Yin, W. (2014). Rethinking the relationships of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation from a disaster risk perspective. Natural Hazards, 70(1), 609–627.

  2. 2.

    For an extended discussion of Resilience, please see Norris, F. H., Stevens, S. P., Pfefferbaum, B., Wyche, K. F., & Pfefferbaum, R. L. (2008). Community resilience as a metaphor, theory, set of capacities, and strategy for disaster readiness. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(1–2), 127–150.

  3. 3.

    Pfefferbaum R. L., Pfefferbaum B., and Van Horn R. L. (2011, 2013, May [revised]). Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART): The CART integrated system©. Oklahoma City, OK: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Terrorism and Disaster Center. Retrieved from http://www.oumedicine.com/docs/ad-psychiatry-workfiles/cart_online-final_042012.pdf?sfvrsn=2

  4. 4.

    Interestingly, Technology, Education and Access, are increasingly intertwined, complementary and are affecting other factors, including community well-being.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Clifford J. Shultz II

  2. College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA

    Don R. Rahtz

  3. Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    M. Joseph Sirgy

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  1. Clifford J. Shultz II
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  1. Honors College and Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

    Rhonda Phillips

  2. School of Environment, Education and Development, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Cecilia Wong

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Shultz, C.J., Rahtz, D.R., Sirgy, M.J. (2017). Distinguishing Flourishing from Distressed Communities: Vulnerability, Resilience and a Systemic Framework to Facilitate Well-Being. In: Phillips, R., Wong, C. (eds) Handbook of Community Well-Being Research. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0878-2_21

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