Critical Resilience and Thriving in Response to Systemic Oppression: Insights to Inform Social Justice in Critical Times

This book offers new insight into how individuals utilize resilience in the face of structural and social injustice.

By drawing on qualitative research methods to foreground the voices of Holocaust survivors and Latinx immigrants to the United States, Critical Resilience and Thriving in Response to Systematic Oppression illustrates the role of cultural values, spirituality, and perseverance in the face of severe institutionalized oppression. Using this to extend current understandings of resilience, the text posits critical resilience as a response to embedded social inequalities and goes on to offer a nuanced reconceptualization of overcoming such hardship, not only as overcoming adversity but as recognizing strengths despite ongoing injustice. It synthesizes feminist and critical theories to elaborate on the framework of critical resilience and thriving.

Highlighting the importance of qualitative research on the strengths and resources of oppressed groups, this volume will be of interest to students, scholars, and researchers with an interest in trauma studies, qualitative methods, and personal development, as well as in mental health research.

Melissa L. Morgan is a Professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology at the University of California Santa Barbara, USA.