Resilience in the Transition Towns Movement. Towards a new Urban Governance
Abstract
Resilience, a concept typical in the natural sciences, has for some years been part of vocabulary of spatial planning but it is as yet relatively unexplored. Its common definition still represents resilience as the capacity of a system to absorb disturbances and to reorganise itself, by returning to the original state. Complexity theory shows that resilience is a bottom-up process, closely related to self-organization of a system, which could change the role of institutions and community in urban governance. Recently, the concept of resilience has been associated with the Transition Towns movement, a bottom-up initiative promoted by civil society. Better known as “urban initiatives for the transition”, they are a set of bottom-up practices of urban management, aimed at achieving a self-sufficient and “zero impact” model of urban development.In this perspective, the research question is: could this new paradigm of development and spatial organization really be a new approach in urban governance?
The paper focuses on the epistemological dimension of the concept of resilience in spatial planning. The purpose is to understand the extent of innovation in planning practices and urban governance. In particular, the first part of the paper provides a review of the theoretical framework of resilience and the second analyzes the Transition Towns movement, with particular reference to the role of stakeholders.
The main aim is to study the implications of the concept of resilience in spatial planning and, in particular, how it translates in the Transition Town experiences. The related outcome is to reflect on the perspective of institutional innovation, in terms of new urban governance.
Downloads
References
Adger W.N. (2000), “Social and ecological resilience: are they related?”, Progress in Human Geography, 24, 347–364.
Bailey I., Hopkins R., Wilson G. (2010), “Some things old some things: the spatial representations and politics of change of the peak oil relocalisation movement”, Geoforum, 41, 595–605.
Berkes, F., Colding, J., Folke, C. (Eds.) (2003), Navigating Social–Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK).
Brangwyn B., Hopkins R. (2008), Transition Initiatives Primer – becoming a Transition Town, City, District, Village, Community or even Island, Transition Network, Totnes.
Brunetta G., Moroni S. (2012), Contractual Community in the Self-organizing City. Freedom, Creativity, Subsidiarity, Springer, Dordrecht.
Carpenter, S.R., Gunderson, L.H. (2001), “Coping with collapse: ecological and social dynamics in ecosystem management”, BioScience, 51, 451–457.
Carpenter S.R., Walker B.H., Anderies J.M., Abel N. (2001), “From metaphor measurement: resilience of what to what?”, Ecosystems, 4, 765–781.
Connors P., McDonald P. (2011), “Transitioning communities: community,participation and the transition town movement”, Community development journal, 46 (4), 558-572.
Davoudi S. (2012), “Resilience: A Bridging Concept or a Dead End?”, Planning Theory & Practice, 13 (2), 299-307.
Folke C. (2006), “Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses”, Global Environmental Change, 16 (3), 253-267.
Folke C., Carpenter S.R., Walker B., Scheffer M., Chapin T., Rockström J. (2010), “Resilience thinking: integrating resilience, adaptability and transformability”, Ecology and Society, 15 (4), 20-26.
Foxon T.J., Reed M.S., Stringer L.C. (2008), “Governing long-term social-ecologicalchange: what can the adaptive management and transition managementapproaches learn from each other?”, Environmental Policy and Governance, 19 (1), 3-20.
Friedmann J. (2011), “Epilogue: citizen planners in an era of limits”, in Friedmann J., Insurgencies: Essays in Planning Theory, Routledge, Abingdon, 231-238.
Funfgeld H. (2012), “Resilience as a useful concept for climate change adaptation?”, Planning Theory & Practice, 13 (2), 324-328.
Gallopin C. (2006), “Linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptivecapacity”, Global Environmental Change, 16 (3), 293-303.
Gunderson L.H., Allen G.R., Holling C.S. (Eds.) (2010), Foundations of Ecological Resilience, Island Press, Washington.
Gunderson L.H., Holling C.S. (2002)(Eds.), Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature, Island Press, Washington.
Hirst P. (1994), Associative democracy: new forms of economic and social governance, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst.
Hirst P., Bader V. (2001), Associative Democracy: The Real Third Way, Frank Cass, London.
Holling C.S. (1961), “Principles of insect predation”, Annual Review of Entomology, 6, 163–182.
Holling C.S. (1973), “Resilience and stability of ecological systems”, Annual Review Ecologic System, 4, 1–23.
Holmgren D. (2002), Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, Hepburn Springs, Victoria.
Hopkins' blog <http://transitionculture.org> [Accessed on may 2012].
Hopkins R. (2011), The Transition Companion. Making your community more resilient in uncertain times, Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont.
Hopkins R. (2008), The Transition Handbook, Green Books LTD, Dartington.
Hopkins R. (2005), Kinsale 2021: An Energy Descent Action Plan, Kinsale Further Education College, Kinsale. Avaible at http://transitionculture.org.
Hopkins R., Lipman P. (2009), Who we are and what we do, Transition Network, Totnes.
Latouche S. (2005), L'invention de l'économie, Albin Michel, Paris.
Lewontin R.C. (1969), “The meaning of stability”, in: Diversity and Stability of Ecological Systems. Brookhaven Symposia in Biology, Brookhaven, New York, 13-24.
Musacchio L., Wu J. (2002), “Cities of Resilience: Four Themes of the Symposium. Understanding and Restoring Ecosystems: A Convocation”, Ecological Society of America, 38.
Newman P., Beatley T., Boyer H. (2009), Resilient cities. Responding to peak oil and climate change, Island Press, Washington.
North D.C. (1990), Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Jacobs J. (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York.
Walker B., Holliger C.S., Carpenter S.R., Kinzig A. (2004), “Resilience, adaptability and trasformability in social-ecological systems”, Ecology and society, 9 (2), 5-20.
May R.M. (1972), “Will a large complex ecosystem be stable?”, Nature, 238, 413–414.
Otto-Zimmermann K. (Ed.)(2011), Resilient Cities. Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change - Proceedings of the Global Forum 2010, Springer, London.
Papa R. (2012), “Editorial preface: resilient cities”, TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 2, 5-6.
Pickett S.T.A., Cadenasso M.L., Grove J.M. (2004), “Resilient cities: meaning, models, and metaphor for integrating the ecological, socio-economic, and planningrealms”, Landscape and Urban Planning, 69, 369–384.
Porter L., Davoudi S. (2012), “The politics of resilience for planning: a Cautionary Note”, Planning Theory and Practice, 13 (2), 329-333.
Portugali J. (1999), Self-organization and the City, Springer, Berlin.
Rosenzweig M.L. (1971), “Paradox of enrichment: destabilization of exploitation ecosystems in ecological time”, Science, 171, 385–387.
Salat S., Bourdic L. (2012), “Systemic resilience of complex urban systems”, TeMA – Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 2, 55-68.
Seyfang G. (2009), Green Shoots of Sustainability: The 2009 UK Transition Movement Survey, University of East Anglia, Norwich.
Seyfang G., Haxeltine A. (2010), “Growing grassroots innovations: Exploring the role of community-based social movements for sustainable energy transitions”, CSERGE Working Paper EDM, 10-08.
Seyfang G., Haxeltine A. (2009), “Transitions for the People: Theory and Practice of Transition and Resilience in the UK’s Transition Movement”, Tyndall Working Paper, 134.
Seyfang G., Haxeltine A., Hargreaves T., Longhurst N. (2010), “Energy and communities in transition – towards a new research agenda on agency and civil society in sustainability transitions”, CSERGE Working Paper EDM, 10-13.
Seyfang G., Smith A. (2007), “Grassroots Innovations for Sustainable Development: towards a new research and policy agenda”, Environmental Politics, 16 (4), 584-603.
Smith A. (2011), “The transition town network: a review of current evolutions and renaissance”, Social movement studies, 10 (1), 99-105.
Smith A., Stirling A. (2010) “The Politics of Social-ecological Resilience andSustainable Socio-technical Transitions”, Ecology and Society, 15 (1), 11. Avaible at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org.
Trapese (2008), “The Rocky Road to Transition: The Transition Towns movement and what it means for social change”, Trapese Collective.
Copyright (c) 2014 Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following:
1. Authors retain the rights to their work and give in to the journal the right of first publication of the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons License - Attribution that allows others to share the work indicating the authorship and the initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors can adhere to other agreements of non-exclusive license for the distribution of the published version of the work (ex. To deposit it in an institutional repository or to publish it in a monography), provided to indicate that the document was first published in this journal.
3. Authors can distribute their work online (ex. In institutional repositories or in their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges and it can increase the quotations of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access)