How well do we know the issue of resilience? Literary research of current levels of knowledge

Economies have always been sensitive to certain types of shocks in the past. This article deals with the growing importance of resilience and the development of this concept connected with regional development and emphasises its significance for the 4.0 generation and smart specialisation. In addition to the 4th lndustrial Revolution, it is necessary to mention the current topic, which is directly related to the concept of resilience and is, to some extent, behind its revival, i.e., COVID-19. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the resilience topic is gaining prominence, and its importance is growing. The COVID-19 crisis shows how it has reduced the resilience of key systems to shocks and allowed failures to cascade from one system to others. A systemic approach based on resilience must be proposed to prepare socioeconomic systems for future shocks. The European Union is no exception and it must, therefore, accept strategies oriented on resilience.