Building inclusive resilience: Exploring justice and social equity in urban resilience planning

Abstract

This thesis explores the process and politics of planning for urban resilience with an eye to issues of social equity and justice. Resilience approaches to urban planning have experienced a rise in popularity in recent years, thanks in part to high-profile global campaigns like “100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation” (100RC). Several critics, however, have cautioned that the concept of resilience is inherently conservative and negligent to social justice. The goal of this mixed-methods thesis is to empirically test the common theoretical hypothesis that resilience approaches neglect justice by exploring how issues of resilience and justice coalesce or conflict in in-situ instances of resilience planning. Two manuscripts comprise this thesis. The first is a global analysis of City Resilience Strategies produced under the 100RC program, intended to draw broader conclusions about how social equity and justice are prioritized (or not) in written resilience plans. The second is a case study which examines how one participating 100RC city (Toronto, Canada) has attempted to be procedurally just and inclusive in its resilience planning process. In sum, this thesis evaluates both the written products and deliberative processes of planning for resilience. Overall, this research concludes that resilience planning is not inherently at odds with goals of social equity and justice, but that city planners must pay keen attention to issues of redistribution, recognition, and participation during both strategy development and implementation if they hope to advance resilience and justice simultaneously. The thesis highlights a number of tools and recommendations that can be used by local governments and globally networked urban experiments alike to advance equity in their resilience building efforts. The findings of this research can help to inform more inclusive and equitable planning practices for more resilient and sustainable cities.