Abstract
Urban resilience research is recognizing the need to complement a mainstream preoccupation with “hard” infrastructure (electrical grid, storm sewers, etc.) with attention to the “soft” (social) infrastructure issues that include the increased visibility of and role for civil society, moving from (top-down, paternalistic) government to (participatory) governance. Analyses of past shock events invariably point to the need for more concerted efforts in building effective governance and networked relations between civil society groupings and formal institutions before, during, and after crisis. However, the literature contains little advice on how to go about this. In this paper, we advance a Connected Community Approach (CCA) to building community resilience with a specific focus on the relationship between community and formal institutions. In the literature review that informs this work, we assess the current, limited models for connecting communities to formal institutions, as well as the emerging role of community-based organizations in this work, and we offer our own assessment of some of the key tensions, lacunae, and trends in the community resilience field. Principally, we explore the potential of the CCA model, as spearheaded by the East Scarborough Storefront and the Centre for Connected Communities in Toronto, Canada, as a promising approach for building the relational space between civil society and the state that is so often called for in the literature. The paper concludes with future directions for research and practice.
Highlights
Resilience is a key feature of healthy, vibrant cities [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
In the face of rising foreseen and unforeseen shocks and stressors in some of our most marginalized and racialized communities, discussions of public health, equity, and sustainability in our cities include the concept of community resilience
There have been recent calls to go beyond thinking about community resilience from a top-down, “bounce back” perspective, to a community-centred, “bounce forward” approach, which means foregrounding the role of communities in responding to, recovering from, adapting to, and transforming before, during, and after crises, as well as resourcing this work
Summary
The role of a community backbone organization in the context of community-centred resilience can facilitate local responses to shock events, but at its best can play the vital role of two-way communication between community and government strategy and action In their 2015 UK study of connected communities (which aligns with but is distinct from the Connected Community Approach originating in East Scarborough), Parsfield et al [127] argue that “non-statutory duties of public services must not be seen as ‘soft’ extras, but potentially crucial points of collaboration & engagement between state and communities as well as strategic opportunities to prevent greater problems arising from social isolation” In CCA, creative infrastructure means putting as much emphasis on investing in the supports, facilitative roles, and connective tissue that centre community priorities and actions as on the buildings and structures in which those activities take place
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