Book excerpt: The book, deliberately written in generally understandable language for all interested readers, paints a unique, transdisciplinary overall picture of resilience as a national and international social factor of our time. It shows that in terms of socio-political significance, the concept of resilience is in no way inferior to the older, hitherto dominant concepts of sustainability and development; indeed, it actively complements them, in some cases contradicts them, but also completes them. Resilience as a societal factor involves all sectors, such as politics, the economy, science and civil society, and thus represents an indispensable frame of reference in the overarching recent debate on the "learning society". "Fathi analyzes the still little-tapped topic of "societal resilience" from entirely new perspectives and with a stimulating thematic breadth. A must-read for anyone who wants to grasp this topic holistically." Prof. Dr. Uwe Schneidewind