WHAT IS URBAN RESILIENCE?National Colloquium on Urban Resilience, 1-2 August 2012

from the view of

Irma Wilson FutureSharp Resilient Village Blueprint

Development

Question 1 – What is Urban Resilience?

THE ABILITY TO ADAPT ~ to sudden or more gradual changing circumstances Structurally, Systemically & Culturally

Food securityWater managementEnergy generation & useTransportationCommunicationProductionEducationSocial habits & constructsLaw & order

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Question 2 – Should we promote urban resilience?YES we MUST!

Beyond urban, we should develop rural & semi-urban with resilience as a mantraBeyond promote, we should build transition spaces for visceral experience Beyond resilience, we should redesign for a THRIVING world (ignite imagination)

There is a misconception that it is the ‘strongest most successful’ individuals inside a species that will survive. It is the most adaptive to change that survives (evolutionary biology)

Design & construct for resilienceWill result in a more graceful transition

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Question 3 – Can we predict/ determine it?We can most certainly imagine desirable futures and reverse engineer it.What outcome to we want ~ if we want this outcome, what must we do just before this? Before that can happen what must the systems look like and how must culture change to inhabit these space? To instigate this, what scaffolding is required? before that can happen, who must speak to each other? And before that what will it take to get them interested in talking? And so on and so forth…

We can create transition spaces for the mainstream to interact with abstract concepts brought to life

We are at the precipice. The only thing we can not predict is when. It is important to look with clarity at what is. Ask the questions: What do we want to become? Where do we head to next?

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Question 4 – How do we apply it to cities?- retro-fit for resilience

Working with what is - re-define use- re-connect local to local

Creating spaces for citizen enactment (eg: green-top-mamas)Legislation & encouragement projectsDevelop multi purpose nodes (integrating work, live & food source space) Provide tools for ‘membranes of significance’ to be formed in order for groups of people to come together to look after defined common goods/spaces.

Biggest challenge: joint emergence of systemic & cultural change (both the interior individual and plural experience)

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Question 5 – Will urban resilience look different in a developing world context?

Overcome fatalism + find the key to activate individual agency Important to influence & redirect desires The Commons (and the language of the commons) as motivator will you be a good ancestor ?

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