ABSTRACT
The term “resilience” stems from the Latin resiliere, “to rebound” or “to recoil”, and was first used in the the academic literature in 1818 to refer to timber’s property “to accommodate sudden and severe loads without breaking” (McAslan 2010, p. 2; cf. Tredgold 1818). After its reconceptualization by ecologist C.S. Holling in 1973, to refer to the ability of natural ecosystems to recuperate from natural or man-made perturbations, the term entered the lexica of a variety of disciplines ranging from resource management to mental health, and from disaster preparedness, in the context of climate change to post-disaster urban recovery and reconstruction. Despite frequent criticism of terminological malleability surrounding its adoption by multiple disciplines (Baggio et al. 2015; Olsson et al. 2015), “resilience” continues to gain traction as a foundational concept and a guiding principle. Compared to sustainability, resilience is perhaps more attractive because it invokes hope and optimism and “the ability to cope in the face of adversity” (McAslan 2010) as opposed to continual preparation for an ever-distant future.
The chapter begins by tracing the genealogy of “resilience” – engineering, ecological, and evolutionary – followed by its migration into disciplines related to urban planning like emergency management, post-disaster planning, and urban climate adaptation. In reviewing resilience discourses underpinning these planning domains, the chapter elaborates on the ways the concept is utilized and its implications for issues like equity, social justice, and participatory democracy, suggesting that they are either ignored or glossed over in much of the contemporary urban planning discourse. The chapter then contrasts resilience-specific application in shrinking cities with alternative practices rooted in insurgent grassroots urbanisms. It concludes with a call for reframing mainstream planning and public policy discourses to pay greater attention to how resilience is embodied in urban grassroots practices.
