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Urban Resilience in Latin America: Questions, Themes and Debates

Abstract:

Urban resilience is gaining attention as an integral approach to face climate change and other social-ecological stresses faced by cities. These shocking events, unevenly distributed across social groups and regions, aggravate existing structural inequalities that characterise neoliberal urbanisation in the Global South. Accordingly, a critical and interdisciplinary approach has arisen to address environmental justice and the political ecology of urban resilience. Through such a lens, this chapter explores key themes, questions and debates around urban resilience in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC). We signal the need to increase adaptive capacities in LAC by going beyond the mainstream risk and climate resilience framework. Social movements, popular solidarity, collective action, local knowledge, experiences on local risk management, and inclusive planning and budgeting are thus considered fundamental for building transformative urban resilience frameworks. We conclude that situated action based on regional priorities is needed, rather than following decontextualised models conceived from welfare societies of the Global North.