No abstract

The resilience of rural communitiestheir ability to adapt to change over timeis a concern in itself and for its effects on the agricultural sector. The present pilot study investigated the possibility of using official statistics for the purpose of measuring resilience, and in particular tested the possibility of identifying resilience thresholds for the indicators. The study used community workshops to investigate the drivers of self-reported resilience among residents of four rural communities in New Zealand, and then compared the self-reported ratings against indicators from official data sources. The self-reported ratings of overall community resilience tended to be more influenced by economic and institutional drivers than social, cultural, or environmental drivers. In addition, the overall self-reported resilience ratings tended to match estimations of resilience based on official statistics. It was therefore possible to identify resilience thresholds for these indicators, that is, values of indicators that reflect more and less resilient communities. Replicating this method in a larger study would provide policymakers with useful information about priorities for rural communities.