The emergence of Urban Community Resilience Initiatives During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Exploratory Study

Abstract

All over the world, urban communities take initiative in order to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study conducts a literature review and an international exploratory study in order to identify pathways within which Community Resilience Initiatives (CRIs) emerge within different governance contexts. The CRIs target vulnerable communities, which are hard to reach. Our study results identify four pathways: (1) informal bottom-up community initiatives; (2) formal community initiatives emerging out of existing community-based initiatives; (3) initiatives of external actors, often NGOs, universities or governments and (4) networks of organisations whom together initiate action in response to COVID-19. The pathways lead to different types, scales and complexities of the initiatives. However, all face similar barriers related to funding, weak networks and limited cooperation. CRIs often perceive the government agencies to be unreliable and unsupportive which in turn also hampers CRI's emergence.

A Behavioral Perspective on Community Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Paraisópolis in São Paulo, Brazil

“…This study contributes to the investigation of community self-organizing responses to the pandemic as previously described by Fransen et al [30]. It further highlights the importance of local knowledge and pre-existing organizational capacity [30].…”

“…This study contributes to the investigation of community self-organizing responses to the pandemic as previously described by Fransen et al [30]. It further highlights the importance of local knowledge and pre-existing organizational capacity [30]. However, the novelty of the present study lies in the application of an evolutionary conceptual framework highlighting the temporal dynamics of learning, adaptation and maintenance of innovative practices.…”

“…It is possible to observe the emergence of community resilience initiatives in many different social settings [30]. At the initial stage of the pandemic, such efforts usually aimed to support communities to adapt and maintain basic services in spite of the external challenges.…”

“…At the initial stage of the pandemic, such efforts usually aimed to support communities to adapt and maintain basic services in spite of the external challenges. The review study presented by Fransen et al [30] focused on the adaptation aspect of community resilience. The next aspect, which would consist of learning processes and preparedness for future crises, is not approached in their study.…”

Urban paradigm shifts in emerging economies

“…Resilience indicates the ability, time and cost needed for urban systems to bounce back to their previous equilibrium or to bounce forward (Martin and Sunley, 2015). The concept covers the resilience of urban social, environmental and economic systems (Ernstson et al, 2010;Martin and Sunley, 2015), urban communities (Fransen et al, 2021), urban organizations (Lebel et al, 2006) and/or the people living and working in a city (Peek, 2008).…”