ELEVEN

Resilience and the City

Malu Villela

As we try to understand all the forces that led us to this crisis,

with cities at the forefront of it, we find ourselves facing the
same old problems that were already here but not receiving
decisive attention –​growing levels of inequality, climate change
as a global emergency, precarious work spreading, struggling
health and care systems, unsustainable business models, and
the crisis of mental health. Although over the past decade
many cities have tried to become more proactive in addressing
these issues and building local resilience, the virus is a test.
In this chapter, I ask the following question: can cities build
out of the crisis to sustain some of the collective sense of
interdependence that has arisen in response to COVID-​19 and
central government policies? I respond to this question with
optimism by underscoring the lessons that we have learnt so
far and how we can take urban resilience more seriously in
the years to come. But why should we turn our focus to cities
and places and not countries and nations?

The city

Analysis based on nation states can sometimes mask the more

nuanced picture of unbalanced growth within countries,
especially regarding levels of income, wealth, wellbeing and
sustainability. It could be that a country ranked as prosperous
has just a few high-​g rowth regions and a large number of
‘left behind’ places. Tackling such issues in the context of
social, economic and environmental inequalities in ways that

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benefit all, not just a few, has become an urgent priority that
is reshaping governance and networks in city regions across the
world. That is the reason why most of the social innovation
and progressive experiments that have emerged in recent years
take the form of place-​based solutions at the local level. It is no
exaggeration to suggest that cities are leading the way towards
more inclusive, sustainable and democratic futures. Likewise,
it is no surprise that having played such a leading role they
would also be at the forefront of the current and recent crises.
This light and shadow are not only faces of the same coin,
but are also the source of their potential to spark new ways
of thinking, organizing and doing that will, ultimately, create
urban resilience.
As the Organisation for Economic Co-​operation and
Development (OECD) suggests, ‘resilient cities are cities that
have the ability to absorb, recover and prepare for future shocks
(economic, environmental, social & institutional)’.1 Through
being tested so many times, trying and failing, processing
and learning, cities have been accumulating knowledge
and experience. Values of inclusivity, democracy, pluralism,
collaboration and sustainability have been informing new
behaviours towards the commons and a new ethos around
what it means to coexist interdependently. Slowly, they are
rendering cities fit for the purpose of addressing the major
systemic challenges we face. Their main asset is diversity and
the ability to provide a shared identity for inhabitants. As the
writer and photographer Taiye Selasi would say, experience is
local –​‘Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m a local.’2 As a
microcosm of society, cities materialize our sense of citizenship
and propel us to engage with the world around us. In doing so,
we can build a broader sense of group identity that transcends
the borders of the local to resonate with a global community
around a shared set of principles and values.
This is a work in progress, of course, and what this current
crisis offers is a very powerful glue to hold us together and
eliminate any remaining differences. This is not the same

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as seeing the crisis as a leveller; it is about testing our views

of what is ultimately important and building solidarity and
empathy to recognize the human being behind the other,
with all their joy, sorrow, strength and weakness. In other
words, as a British commentator predicted in January before
the crisis, there is hope to move away from an illusory idea
of personal autonomy that fuels individualism because ‘a new
age of collectivism seems to be dawning –​and not a moment
too soon’.3 Well, it may have arrived. In the following section,
I explore values and proposals that have been tested or already
implemented in cities around the world, and highlight the
lessons and ideas that might help us in this transition towards
a new age of urban resilience.

Circular economy

The idea of a circular economy was brilliantly captured by Kate

Raworth in the image of a doughnut. In her seminal work
Doughnut Economics, she offers a framework for a new economic
thinking that puts people first by meeting their core needs and
respecting the limits of the planet. The Doughnut is ‘a social
foundation of well-​being that no one should fall below, and
an ecological ceiling of planetary pressure that we should not
go beyond. Between the two lies a safe and just space for all.’4
It builds on the collective power of human beings, markets
committed to being a force for good, and public partnership
to catalyze progressive change. When these three pillars are
brought together to address the social and environmental
challenges of our time, real change can be achieved. The
first step is repurposing our economies from a productivity
and growth mindset to ‘meeting the human rights of every
person within the means of our life-​g iving planet’.5 We then
must use the potential of the market, government, households
and the commons in order to collaboratively create solutions
to the wellbeing of both people and planet. This comes as a
realization of our interdependence and the need to approach

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the economy through promoting a more equal distribution of

wealth and a regenerative (circular) economy.
An example of this in an urban context is the implementation
of the doughnut economics model by the city of Amsterdam.
The model seeks to mobilize the city’s changemakers and
stakeholders around a compelling shared vision of what it
means to become a thriving city in order to bring about change.
The first step was the creation of a ‘city portrait’ following the
Doughnut’s social and planetary boundaries, which presents the
big picture of the city life via the impacts expressed through the
social, ecological, local and global lenses. This tool becomes the
starting point for collaborative innovation by connecting local
community initiatives, start-​ups and civil society with public
institutions, businesses, schools and universities. Underpinning
this, a city network –​Amsterdam Doughnut Coalition –​was
created bringing together 30 organizations across all local
sectors to support the implementation of the model, something
that Raworth herself suggests is increasing the likelihood of
such process being successful.6

Social economy

Discussions about the ‘social’ economy have been happening

for a long time and gained prominence after the 2008 financial
crisis with frustrations about ‘business as usual’ and the belief
that another economy is possible. The social economy engages
more or less inclusive, sustainable and democratic organizations,
and it is expressed in a variety of forms according to different
contexts and places. It can vary from mission-​led businesses
that combine social and economic goals within their hybrid
form (for example, B Corps, as created in the US), to not-​
for-​profit social enterprises with 100% of their resources and
profit aimed at social good (for example, social businesses that
follow Muhammed Yunus’ ‘Grameen Bank’ model, created
in Bangladesh).

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More recently, the social economy has been considered ‘a

business model for the future of the European Union [EU]’,
which is home to 2.8 million social economy enterprises
and organizations.7 The EU describes the social economy
as ‘a wide diversity of enterprises and organisations  –​
co-operatives, mutuals, associations, foundations, social
enterprises, paritarian institutions of social protection etc. –​
that share common values and features such as the primacy
of the individual and the social objective over capital, a
democratic governance, and the reinvestment of most of
the profits/​surpluses to carry out sustainable development
objectives, services of interest to members or of general
interest’. It also considers that ‘because of its strong social
commitment, the social economy offers innovative solutions
to the main economic, social and environmental challenges
of our time’.8

Collective action

Collaboration is needed not only to contain the spread of the

virus, but also to get us out of the crisis. Although national
governments, especially in the rich nations, have stepped
up to rescue the economy and its workers, the long-​term
solutions will not come from policy makers, businesses,
academics or civil society working separately. All sectors
have limitations and are being urged to rapidly learn how
to respond, change and adapt to the ‘new normal’ ahead
of us. The complex issues of the urban environment have
become even more entangled. When considering health,
for example, we must not only imagine it as human health,
but as social, economic and environmental health as well.
Unless we learn to appreciate the systemic nature of all our
problems and engage in meaningful collaborations, we will
not be able to rebuild better.
Acknowledging the big picture, as in the Doughnut model,
is a good starting point to transcend the individual and embrace

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the collective. Operating within our own boundaries and

knowledge might feel more comfortable, but we will only
go so far. We need to embrace uncertainty together. Cross-​
sector governance, inter-​organizational collaboration, meta-​
organizing and co-​production/​design/​creation approaches
have been adopted by many sectors, networks and institutions
in the urban environment, with some notable examples such
as community wealth building (CWB) and civic wealth
creation (CWC).
In the CWB model, economic development is organized
around people and places, promoting values of equality, fairness
and sustainability. It seeks to connect local anchor institutions
(city governments, hospitals, universities and so on) with social
economy organizations (co-​ops, social enterprises, community
businesses and so on) by enabling the latter to participate in
the market created by the former. In this process, it retains the
wealth locally and increases the leverage of social enterprises
in the local economy.9 The CWC model distributes local
stakeholders into categories of community (area, culture,
ethnicity); enterprise (organizations with a social and/​or
environmental mission that engage in revenue generation); and
regimes of support (government agencies, funding bodies, large
corporations, universities and so on). Civic wealth is created
when the different groups of stakeholders engage in collective
action and converge their mutual interests to improve collective
social welfare.10

Approaches, scales and frameworks

Many approaches have been combined to build transition

frameworks based on different city visions. The resilient,
happy, healthy, edible, green, regenerative, inclusive, just,
people-​c entred, smart, circular and sustainable city are
some of the visions that have been around lately. They
do not all follow the same principles. A  sustainable and

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healthy city, for example, would favour more green areas,

whereas a just city would be concerned with more affordable
housing. Nonetheless, there are several intersections that
can be balanced to find the most suitable design for each
city’s particular issues and challenges. The tension that
sometimes arises between social inclusion and environmental
sustainability should not be faced as a threat but rather as
something to fuel creativity, disruption and innovation to
solve problems in the local level. Instead of putting them
in separate boxes or silos, bringing them together and
appreciating the tension can actually enrich the process of
developing initiatives and solutions that cut across themes.
When it comes to different levels or scales, an important
aspect is how international frameworks, such as the UN
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can translate to
different scales and contexts. Voluntary local reviews (VLRs)
of progress on SDGs have been carried out by cities since
2018. One of them, the English city of Bristol, identified
issues such as coordination challenges in the delivery and
monitoring of the SDGs sub-​nationally, which are attributed to
the jurisdictional complexity of administrative city boundaries
that do not reflect the reality of a functionally integrated urban
region with its multiple towns, smaller cities and communities.
The emphasis on cities as units of governance, as in this case,
can miss the endless movement that happens across city borders
and lead to unnecessary urban, suburban and rural divides,
which will ultimately prevent a better integration of the region.
Another aspect highlighted by the Bristol report is the need to
disaggregate data in order to account for the inequalities within
and across the city, which is usually masked by national statistics
or lacking in local statistics. Some indicators are simply not
appropriate or miss local forms of organizing and innovating,
which led the report to suggest that ‘there is a clear need for a
standard set of indicators for cities that are spatially appropriate
and globally applicable’.11

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The future of participation

Most of what we need has already been created, but it comes

as fragments of a puzzle that need connection. The innovators
and disruptors needed are the ones able to translate, connect
and broker the web of overlapping initiatives and reinvented
wheels that are already out there  –​in sum, to connect the
dots. Finding common ground where different parties can
agree on the direction to take is a necessary starting point.
In this process, technology can be put at the service of
transparency, solidarity and democratic participation. Tools
such as mapathons, hackathons, ‘ask and offer’ platforms, and
citizen observatories and assemblies are progressive uses of the
internet for the common good.
Mapathons are collaborative efforts to collect geographic
data and map specific places in the form of map marathon
events. Hackathons are another collective effort type of event
where programmers and participants of diverse background
collaborate to create proof-​of-​concept applications. Both of
them operate through crowdsourcing. In 2018, a mapathon
in Pretoria (South Africa), for example, involved university
students mapping important features in the draft plan of coastal
management for the city of Cape Town. The data generated
in this event was later used in a hackathon event to develop
web or mobile applications focused on the blue economy (that
is, the use of marine and ocean resources in a sustainable way
for economic growth and to improve livelihoods in coastal
areas) of the region.12 These tools can also be used to map
new economies in cities, which usually slip under the radar
of official statistics and databases. Mapping and identifying the
variety of organizations in these social economies can help to
better understand their scope, scale and diversity, and ultimately
help to enhance their contributions to the overall economy.
Ask and offer platforms have been used to enable individuals
to ask for or offer help during the COVID-​19 crisis. Such
platforms match specific asks with suitable offers and more

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easily link people and organizations in a web of solidarity. In

Brussels, for example, a platform called Brussels Helps13 was
created during the crisis with support from all authorities
and municipalities in the region in order to gather requests,
contributions and bring citizens together. These tools have
been proliferating in the crisis but could also become a
permanent asset for the city and go beyond the urgent asks
of these times. By involving different sectors, such as the
private sector and universities, for example, it could help to
link corporate volunteers, students and academics with small
local businesses, social enterprises, co-​operatives and charities
in order to support them with specific technical and research
needs. As an open space, it provides inclusion and democratic
access to the population, as long as issues of digital literacy and
connectivity are also taken into account, for example through
partnerships with public authorities or organizations that can
address these challenges.
Citizen observatories and (as mentioned in a few other
chapters in this book) assemblies are another good use of
technology to ensure democratic participation of local citizens
in city-​level planning and development. Although survey and
consultations have been used as an approach by the public
sector, more inclusive and participatory designs have been
created to ensure democratic decision making and overcome
power asymmetries. A public and independent platform where
all information concerning citizens is made available can be
used by citizens to monitor public authorities and establish
a dialogue over their claims and concerns. In addition to
that, it can provide a space for forums and discussion over
issues concerning grand challenges such as climate crisis and
inequality, alongside other SDGs. Ultimately, this would enable
a people-​centred vision of urban governance, participatory
planning and design, operating as a tool for citizen involvement
in democratic decision making.14
As a profoundly social species, human beings need the
collective to survive. Cities magnify that dependency, and

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also bring us into contact with others who are often very
different from us. Urban and personal resilience ultimately
involves rethinking the transactional mode that drives most
of our interactions, commodifies our roles and creates power
imbalances between us. This is needed if we are to nurture
a collective spirit that respects and values our diversity as a
strength rather than a threat, and hence helps us overcome the
challenges of our times together.

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