**1. Introduction**

The chapter will set out the theoretical foundation for the concept of resilient neighborhoods as the core of social sustainability. Resilience is more than bouncing back after an experience of adversity. It paves the way for social progress. However, social progress is not only promoted but also impeded by social and institutional processes that shape interventions and create conditions. These processes can undermine the sustainability of neighborhoods and inflict losses of social and economic capital. At the same time, the neighborhood might be the level on which conflicting processes still are comprehensible and amenable.

This chapter has three sections. The next session contains an elaboration on the concept of resilience. A combination of personality research, developmental psychology, and social ecology place resilience in a person-in-environment system in which personals attributes and social institutions interact. In this adaptive system counterintuitive processes occur due to the interplay of trust and distrust and to social comparison. In this way, we point out which social and institutional processes shape interventions and conditions encompassing resilience. The section concludes with the research question and a conceptual model. In Section 3, national reports on policy reforms in the social domains will be analyzed on the relation between by resilience inspired state policies and the outcomes in terms of equality and justice. The sustainable development goals of the United Nations provide a frame of reference for the topics. In Section 4, the role of resilience in Dutch society is discussed on the basis of 10 semi-structured interviews with a selection of key persons involved in sustainable cities and initiatives in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Overall, an explorative study is conducted in order to probe and advance the approach of the social sustainability of neighborhoods and cities.
