Urban Resilience to the Climate Emergency (eBook)

This volume sheds light on urban resilience strategies in times of climate emergency and social and economic crisis by reflecting on related social vulnerabilities and inequalities within cities and showing the potential of participatory governance approaches for socio-environmental transformation. The book compiles critical research documenting the articulation of urban resilience strategies dealing with climatic changes, as well as the understanding of the unexpected implications of top-down resilience plans to address the impacts of climate change in cities, especially on the most vulnerable urban populations, and the transformative capacities of bottom-up and socially innovative resilience strategies. The book especially focuses on co-produced and grassroots transformative processes that are concerned with social equity in urban planning for climate change.  

Although several publications cover the topic of urban resilience, this book provides a more nuanced exploration of urban climate governance and citizen engagement in urban climate resilience policies through the lenses of political ecology, environmental justice and co-production. In this regard, the volume moves beyond the approach of multilevel urban climate governance by critically addressing the unexpected impacts of top-down strategies of urban resilience with the goal of expanding the reflection on citizen engagement. The book also explores the emerging possibilities behind the co-production of urban resilience as well as the critical role of grassroots and citizens in promoting such alternative strategies. While the primary target audience is scholars from different disciplines (e.g. geography, urban studies, planning, political ecology, architecture, urban sociology, environmental studies) focusing on urban resilience, the editors also aim to reach urban resilience practitioners from local, national and international organisations as well as environmental grassroots and climate activists.

Isabel Ruiz-Mallén is a 'Ramón y Cajal' Senior Researcher at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain. She is currently leading a research line on grassroots co-creation for sustainable solutions at the Laboratory of Urban Transformation and Global Change (TURBA). She has a proven ability to work across disciplines, from sustainability education to community-based conservation and climate change adaptation and resilience, in multicultural contexts (global North/South, rural/urban), and through exploring innovative participatory approaches (arts-based). Isabel is an environmental scientist holding a MSc in Biological Sciences from UNAM (2005) and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from UAB (2009).

Hug March is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economy and Business, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He is a researcher at the Laboratory of Urban Transformation and Global Change (TURBA, UOC), where he leads a research line on the political ecology of socio-environmental transformation. Hug obtained a PhD in Environmental Studies from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2010. He has authored over 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters in the fields of environmental studies, urban studies, geography and water studies. He has done extensive research on the urban political ecology of the water, including research on financialization and remunicipalisation.

Mar Satorras is a postdoctoral researcher of the Laboratory of Urban Transformation and Global Change (TURBA) at IN3-Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). She is an anthropologist and environmental scientist holding a MSc and PhD in Environmental Studies from UAB. Mar's research focuses on urban sustainability challenges approached under socio-political lenses, with particular interests on the water cycle and the climate emergency. She has conducted research on urban climate adaptation and resilience, by exploring the ways how past and present societies experience and respond to hydro-climatic dynamics. Her interdisciplinary research at the interface between environmental and social sciences combines ethnographic, historical, and geographical perspectives.