Gardening after catastrophe (book)

Greening in the Red Zone

‘Greening in the red zone’ refers to post-catastrophe, community-based stewardship of nature, and how these often spontaneous, local stewardship actions serve as a source of social-ecological resilience in the face of severe hardship. Two types of evidence are presented in this book. First are explanations on the positive impact of contact with nature, and from resilience scholars who subscribe to the notion that identifying sources of resilience in the face of change is crucial to the long-term well-being of humans, their communities, and the environment. The second source of evidence are case studies of greening in red zones from post-disaster and post-conflict settings around the world, ranging from the highly visible like the greening of the Berlin Wall, to smaller-scale efforts like planting a community garden in a war zone.

Reslience in peri-urban settings (online)

Understanding Peri-urban Sustainability: The role of the resilience approach

This paper is concerned with how resilience approaches can be used as a practical tool in helping to understand complex systems in an urbanising world and how resilience approaches can contribute to initiatives to enhance environmental integrity and social justice. Some key debates around differing understandings and uses of the term resilience are summarised, and criticisms discussed. In-depth case studies demonstrate opportunities for the use of resilience approaches as an integral part of initiatives that seek to enhance sustainability in dynamic urbanising situations.

Transition towns in the majority world (journal)

Jobs versus livelihoods: Sustainable settlements within the transition paradigm

How can the “transition paradigm” be implemented in poor communities in South Africa where most people are dependent on income from government grants? Here, the aim cannot be to have a transition to a lower consumption society; these societies are actually under-consuming. Rather, it is necessary to create settlements which are sustainable in almost every way: in terms of livelihoods, natural resources, energy and water usage, health and education, transport, and waste disposal. In this model, sustainable communities use the skills, assets and resources of their members to generate livelihoods. This paper observes three existing communities in South Africa with the objective of analysing how such models are integrated (or not) into the local economy. Thereafter aspects of a model that envisages ways that poor communities can create sustainable livelihoods, using local skills and resources, are presented. This model requires strategies for creating localised systems, including micro finance, local markets, com-munity exchange networks, cooperative construction, production and distribution systems; and infrastructure and technology systems.

Can 'resilience' mean radical change? (#journal)

‘Bouncing back’ to capitalism? Grass-roots autonomous activism in shaping discourses of resilience and transformation following disaster

Resilience has been criticised for focusing on attempts to maintain the status quo following a disturbance, upholding the hegemony of stability and being unhelpful to groups seeking radical change. Despite this, the concept is fast subsuming sustainability for community organisations wishing to address social and environmental injustices. This paper examines the potential for a radical notion of resilience that can challenge hegemonic understandings of everyday capitalist life, and thus contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the radical potential for what is often expressed as an inherently non-radical concept.