Learning to be resilient: An application of organisational learning theory to developing disaster resilience at community level (English Edition)

Disaster resilience is a core theme in contemporary emergency management. This paper examines that theme and makes the claim that the learning of lessons from disasters is a prerequisite to community disaster resilience. The research is based on a literature search of secondary sources and documentary evidence from primary sources. The paper demonstrates that resilience can be effectively explained in terms of a learning model, and that it can be seen to derive from the operationalisation of lessons learned from disasters. The research contributes to the field of emergency management by applying an organisational learning model to the concept of community disaster resilience. This model could be used for further analysis of resilience related issues.