TRAVAS: Theorizing Resilience and Vulnerability in Ancient Studies
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5290289
Paul Erdkamp answers Questions on Resilience
and Vulnerability
Author Information:
Paul Erdkamp studied history at the University of Nijmegen,
where he earned his doctorate in 1998. Afterwards he became
Research Fellow at Leiden University. He is Professor of Ancient
History at the Department of History at the Vrije Universiteit
Brussel. He is specialized in economic, demographic and
military aspects of the Roman world.
https://researchportal.vub.be/en/persons/paul-erdkamp
Prof. Paul Erdkamp
Department of History
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pleinlaan 2
1050 Brussels
Belgium
1
, TRAVAS: Theorizing Resilience and Vulnerability in Ancient Studies
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5290289
Q. At which institution are you currently affiliated and
what is your field of expertise?
I work at the Department of History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. My field
of expertise is Roman history, and I have published mostly on economy, food
supply and social and environmental aspects of Roman war, but I have also
published on Roman historiography and cultural aspects of food.
Q. What sparked your interest in researching resilience and
vulnerability?
I have always been interested in environmental aspects of human society,
and I have published on food riots and the various societal mechanisms that
were devised to cope with harvest shocks and the limitations of market
channels. However, it was the grand narratives that linked the rise and fall of
the Roman Empire – and in particular the positive response outside history with
which these ideas were widely met – that involved me in the academic debate
on this issue. I felt the need to engage in the debate, as historians who are
sceptical of grand narratives are denounced as intuitively rejecting the role of
environmental factors in human history.
Q. Is the history of humankind a history of resilience and
vulnerability? What are the sources and approaches with
which you investigate vulnerability and resilience? What
are the future challenges in resilience and vulnerability
research?
‘Vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ have become buzzwords in the debate on
the impact of environmental factors on societies in the past, present and future.
However, these terms by themselves lack definition and are therefore not very
useful as such. Vulnerability and resilience are important aspects of the
functioning of society, but as analytical tools they require refinement and
specificity. To begin with, much depends on the scale of both the
environmental factor and the entity whose vulnerability or resilience one
discusses. On a seasonal or annual scale, floods, periods of extreme cold and
drought did, directly or indirectly (through their effects on harvests), cause
massive mortality. Societies devised means to reduce the risks or to alleviate
the impact, but it is clear from history that disasters occurred. However, it is a
different question when one asks whether societies were vulnerable to climate
change, the relatively long-term nature of which allows societal adaptations at
a different level in agricultural practices and institutions. One may think of a
change of crops, the construction of terraces, or societal changes that affect
distribution and the entitlement to food. So, the temporal scale needs to be
defined when using ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ as analytical tools, and the
2
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5290289
Paul Erdkamp answers Questions on Resilience
and Vulnerability
Author Information:
Paul Erdkamp studied history at the University of Nijmegen,
where he earned his doctorate in 1998. Afterwards he became
Research Fellow at Leiden University. He is Professor of Ancient
History at the Department of History at the Vrije Universiteit
Brussel. He is specialized in economic, demographic and
military aspects of the Roman world.
https://researchportal.vub.be/en/persons/paul-erdkamp
Prof. Paul Erdkamp
Department of History
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pleinlaan 2
1050 Brussels
Belgium
1
, TRAVAS: Theorizing Resilience and Vulnerability in Ancient Studies
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5290289
Q. At which institution are you currently affiliated and
what is your field of expertise?
I work at the Department of History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. My field
of expertise is Roman history, and I have published mostly on economy, food
supply and social and environmental aspects of Roman war, but I have also
published on Roman historiography and cultural aspects of food.
Q. What sparked your interest in researching resilience and
vulnerability?
I have always been interested in environmental aspects of human society,
and I have published on food riots and the various societal mechanisms that
were devised to cope with harvest shocks and the limitations of market
channels. However, it was the grand narratives that linked the rise and fall of
the Roman Empire – and in particular the positive response outside history with
which these ideas were widely met – that involved me in the academic debate
on this issue. I felt the need to engage in the debate, as historians who are
sceptical of grand narratives are denounced as intuitively rejecting the role of
environmental factors in human history.
Q. Is the history of humankind a history of resilience and
vulnerability? What are the sources and approaches with
which you investigate vulnerability and resilience? What
are the future challenges in resilience and vulnerability
research?
‘Vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ have become buzzwords in the debate on
the impact of environmental factors on societies in the past, present and future.
However, these terms by themselves lack definition and are therefore not very
useful as such. Vulnerability and resilience are important aspects of the
functioning of society, but as analytical tools they require refinement and
specificity. To begin with, much depends on the scale of both the
environmental factor and the entity whose vulnerability or resilience one
discusses. On a seasonal or annual scale, floods, periods of extreme cold and
drought did, directly or indirectly (through their effects on harvests), cause
massive mortality. Societies devised means to reduce the risks or to alleviate
the impact, but it is clear from history that disasters occurred. However, it is a
different question when one asks whether societies were vulnerable to climate
change, the relatively long-term nature of which allows societal adaptations at
a different level in agricultural practices and institutions. One may think of a
change of crops, the construction of terraces, or societal changes that affect
distribution and the entitlement to food. So, the temporal scale needs to be
defined when using ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ as analytical tools, and the
2
