Vol. 5 No. 1 (2025): Balancing Growth, Risk, and Sustainability in Resilient Economies

This issue of the Journal of Resilient Economies brings together research that explores how economic resilience is forged at different scales—from the choices of individual investors, to the strategies of urban communities, to the policies shaping entire regions. A unifying theme across these contributions is the tension between short-term pressures and long-term sustainability, and how decision-making under uncertainty defines resilience.

The articles highlight three complementary dimensions:

• Individual behaviour under risk and ambiguity, examining how psychological factors such as framing, targets, and ambiguity shape investment choices and the disposition effect.

• Regional pathways to sustainability, investigating how economic growth and ecological resilience can be coordinated to overcome the “pollute first, treat later” dilemma in developing contexts.

• Community and lifestyle dynamics, showing how motivations, hedonism, and self-validation influence urban nightlife economies and the broader tourism experience.

Together, these studies illustrate that resilient economies depend not only on structural conditions and policy frameworks but also on human motivations and behavioural responses to uncertainty. The insights offered here provide valuable perspectives for policymakers, managers, and scholars seeking to design economic systems that are robust, adaptive, and sustainable.