Resilient Transformations of Critical Infrastructures in Crisis

The advance of information and communication technology (ICT) accelerates the exchange of information and corresponding actions inside critical infrastructures. Operators (private- or public-sector) and regulatory institutions (state or multi-organizational) are pushed to cope with this dynamic. Increasing uncertainties in the environment of critical infrastructure systems, like climate change, terrorism and the potential for criminal or state-sponsored cyberattacks add to the complexity of those systems. To guarantee a safe operation of critical infrastructures responsible actors increasingly resort to strategically fostering resilience in the sociotechnical systems they manage and are part of themselves. Resilience is commonly understood as “bouncing back” to a state of equilibrium. Ecologically informed resilience concepts think of multiple equilibria and recent theories make “bouncing forward” i.e. transformative aspects an integral part of resilience. Yet, a transformative aspect begs the question of which essential core is made resilient? And what remains of this essential core after transformation? In the end, the fabric of critical infrastructures and their resiliency are the product of a social construction by multiple stakeholders. ... mehrBased on contemporary sociological theories i present a way to rethink the resilience of critical infrastructures. Resilience guarantees continuity for a socially constructed fabric by maintaining transformability and being transformed, in the event of a crisis and despite of adverse circumstances. Every crisis introduces new elements into the sociotechnical system of critical infrastructures that previously weren’t part of it and thereby co-constitutes the fabric multiple stakeholders have mutually constructed. The genealogy of a critical infrastructures’ fabric before and its transformation during a crisis need to be assessed in order to adequately conceive the discursive and material aftereffects.