Abstract
‘Fragile’ and ‘failed state’ discourse leads to a reductionist portrayal of failure that can obscure the presence of patterns of resilience. This paper examines the role of resilience theory, and one of its derivations, ‘panarchy’, in relation to the restorative agency of communities, simultaneous fragmentation and positive adaptation across multiple connected systems in Afghanistan. The results suggest that the resilience of Afghan communities to conflict and violence has depended on the durability of both their positive and negative adaptive strategies in providing a range of public services to fill in the void left by government. While customary structures have been sources of order and solidarity at the local level, they have also fomented destabilisation and frustrated the extension of the neoliberal governmentality and the securitisation agendas. Customary affiliations have adapted in multiple and overlapping ways, demonstrating a high level of community resilience in the face of widespread disrupti...
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