Resilience to What? Resilience for Whom?

The discourse on disaster resilience and vulnerability entails diverse research and policy communities each assigning different meanings to the concepts, which in turn influences their measurement and implementation in decision-making contexts. This invited contribution introduces a themed section with five independently submitted papers on the broad topic of vulnerability and resilience. The distinctive geographical focus on the historical development of vulnerability and resilience and their contemporary manifestations is illustrated by the five internationally focused case studies presented in the themed section.