Global resilience models and territories of the South. A critical review

Abstract

The resilience of cities, regions and other territorial scales is defined by various conceptual frameworks and has since the 2000s constituted a growing scientific and technical field. Although literature points out the difficulty of implementing such a vague and ambiguous concept, a range of metrics, methodological frameworks and principles have emerged, using tools like composite indicators, qualitative assessment or stochastic modelling. Among these models some have been applied globally over the last ten years, for e.g. the City Resilience Framework developed for the 100 Resilient Cities network. This article proposes a discussion of these global resilience models in order to contribute to our understanding of how they are constructed, how they function, and their potential to transform territories. By using literature review and qualitative content analysis, four axes of inquiry are developed: translations and adaptations of the notion of resilience within hegemonic networks; socio-technical markers of resilience models; resilience as a device of neoliberal governmentality; the position of Latin America within the production of knowledge concerning resilience. This manuscript main contribution is to put into question some gaps or biases in our scientific outputs and models that we might be reproducing or legitimating, and that are worth cross-examine. Three key findings are: Evidenced biases in disciplinary associations of resilience; Evidenced gaps in using closed-form of modelling resilience that invisibilize important assumptions of territories and despolitize the concept; The North-South divide resilience knowledge production is not only quantitative but also expressed in the core of models and tools.