Abstract
Uncertainty, unpredictability and change have become key characteristics of today’s interdependent world. Although risks, disasters and crises are inherent to human existence, the speed, frequency and scale at which they occur today are unprecedented. Natural disasters related to global warming have increased in the last decade. Although climate change is considered a global problem, its impacts are felt locally. Cities, then, must respond earlier and more effectively to risks and hazards. Although both ‘resilience thinking’ and ‘community based adaptation’ have made headway, they have been mainly applied to rural areas and natural resource management at regional levels within social–ecological systems. This paper applies the lessons of resilience thinking and experiences in community-based adaptation efforts to urban areas.
The paper argues that participatory knowledge management systems can enhance resilience in urban areas. Participatory knowledge management systems equip stakeholders at the local level to deal more effectively with sudden change, risks, and long-term stresses. Simultaneously, they can foster social capital and trust, strategic leadership, and enhance collective competence – all important components of resilient systems.
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Notes
- 1.
The full title of this research programme is ‘Urban chances – city growth and the sustainability challenge. Comparing fast growing cities in growing economies’. Funded under the 7th EU-framework programme (Project no. 244828), the programme partners include the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), Germany; Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France; School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), India; Cities for Life Forum (FORO), Peru; Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP), Brazil; Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), Norway; and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. For more information on the research programme see: http://www.chance2sustain.eu/.
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- 3.
Redundancy refers to the extent to which substitutions are possible in the event of disruption or degradation (Norris et al. 2008: 131). When applied to urban systems, for instance, it can refer to alternative energy resources, redundancy in transport possibilities and/or roads, or communication systems. It always implies that alternative systems can take over in case the main system fails. Redundancy in urban governance networks is less straightforward. It is important that alternative actors can take over if the main actor fails to act in a crisis (see our paragraph on strategic leadership). However, redundancy in urban governance networks introduces the risk of unclear or overlapping possibilities, paralyzing rather than fostering key stakeholder initiatives.
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It is interesting to note that Norris et al. (2008) listed very similar aspects of what they labelled primary sets of adaptive capacities; namely, economic development, social capital, information and communication and community competence. In their definition, ‘to build collective resilience, communities must reduce risk and resource inequities, engage local people in mitigation, create organizational linkages, boost and protect social supports, and plan for not having a plan, which requires flexibility, decision making skills and trusted sources of information that in function in the face of unknowns’ (Norris et al. 2008: 127).
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For instance, long-term predictions from climate change models need to be combined with local knowledge on specific trends already experienced to produce a localised understanding of risks (Reid et al. 2009).
- 7.
Bonding capital refers to social ties among people with a shared identity, i.e., homogeneous groups. Bridging capital refers to ties between groups with differing identities (heterogeneous groups) but with shared objectives. Linking social ties refers to vertical links, for instance between communities, leaders and government institutions.
- 8.
Norris et al. (2008) defined ‘community competence’ as ‘the networked equivalent of human agency’, hence the capacity for decision making and meaningful collective action. Prerequisites for these capacities are critical reflection and deliberation, and creativity and flexibility (Norris et al. 2008: 136). We label the capacity of governance networks of various stakeholders ‘collective competence’.
- 9.
A clear exception is the participatory vulnerability analysis (PVA) developed by Action Aid, which starts at the community level, but also feeds into district, national and international levels (Reid et al. 2009: 27).
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Hordijk, M., Baud, I. (2011). Inclusive Adaptation: Linking Participatory Learning and Knowledge Management to Urban Resilience. In: Otto-Zimmermann, K. (eds) Resilient Cities. Local Sustainability, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0785-6_11
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