Reconsidering Resilience in Rapidly Urbanising areas. Chapter 7 in 'Multidisciplinary perspectives on Urban Resilience' (original) (raw)

Preface to the Book: Now more than ever, cities are hot spots responsible for threatened global ecological boundaries. Climate change impacts and global environmental change are challenges for urban dwellers, planners, and managers. To develop opportunities for the sustainable development of cities, researchers from multiple disciplines are studying the feedback, dynamics, and behaviour of urban systems in the face of change. During the 2011 Resilience Conference1 in Arizona, USA, a group of young researchers from different countries discussed critically the potential use of the resilience theory in understanding the dynamics and development of cities. Given the highly scattered literature related to ‘urban resilience’ and the different interpretations and applications of the concept, these researchers decided to set up an international urban resilience research network (later named URBNet2, Urban Resilience Young Researchers Network). Eight months after this first contact, the URBNet founders organised the First International Workshop on Urban Resilience, held in Barcelona on 18 and 19 November of 2011 with the support of the Master Programme in Landscape Intervention and Management at the Barcelona History Museum (MUHBA). The aim of the workshop was to share resilience perspectives applied to different urban contexts. The workshop was attended by more than 40 graduate students, researchers and practitioners. This report summarises presentations of the ongoing research of the network’s members that were given during the two-day workshop. The result is a review and discussion of examples showing how resilience is applied to different contexts. As a first step in understanding these contexts, we hope this compilation will inspire readers to create ways of complementing sustainability science with resilience thinking. Contributors to this report are Lorenzo Chelleri (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain), Marta Olazabal (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and Basque Centre for Climate Change, BC3, Spain), Lilia Yumagulova (British Columbia University, Canada), James J. Waters (Tyndall Centre, United Kingdom), Anna Kunath (Helmholtz- Centre, Germany) and Guido Minucci (Politecnico di Milano, Italy). Through this report, URBNet aims to contribute constructively to the discussion on urban resilience and the opportunities and benefits of applying urban resilient thinking in urban environments.