Facing Precarity
Authors:   , Sasek Alexandria R. , Johnston-Zimmerman Katrina 
Published: July 2021

Resilience necessitates contextualization: resilience for/by whom, from who/what, how, why, and when. To understand resilience in a multidimensional manner, one must understand precarity; or the fragilities that form the spaces, structures, and systems surrounding and defining our everyday lives and our lives in crisis. Precarity arises with acknowledging the unsustainability of "sustaining social conditions of life - especially when they fail" (Butler 2010, 35). Livable, resilient cities are envisioned under the best-case scenario paradigm, and when disaster strikes, the ability to adapt is affected by pre-existing conditions of long-term stressors. The narrative of resilience capitalizes on those considered acceptable collateral damage and reflects the collective ability to absorb violent consequences- in war, through gentrification, or by cost-efficiency. I bridge Butler's concept of precarity with Ahmed's queer phenomenology to question the orientation of urban resilience. With Klein's assertions about the U.S. political 'Shock Doctrine,' wherein if nature "can be engender Shock and Awe," then risk can be embodied (2007, 3). I argue that who defines what we should be protected from and how is not open to national discussion due to the determination of a patriarchal white supremacy as it has been built and maintained in the United States. Expanding on questions raised in academic and activist literatures, I center the political power structures influencing urban resilience measures with socially held conceptions of what a livable city would or could look like on a precarious planet. The thesis is a philosophical undertaking of contextualizing the politics of resilience, like the effects of redlining, in affording accumulated resilience such as reliable utility services which, in their failure, create "spatial manifestations of deteriorating governance" (Chelleri, et al. 2015, 192; Muggah 2014, 346). I interviewed governmental emergency managers and conducted literature reviews of academic journals and official governmental reports to code for gendered constructions of climate change, leadership, and conflict. Departing from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's concept of a "climate-conflict nexus," this thesis focuses on how climate effects and gender (in)equality could affect levels of conflict and access to resources when disaster strikes (OECD 2016, 91). Philadelphia is the extended case study, with statewide, regional, and national trends included per their relevance and influence, yet within the scope of a master's thesis. In an increasingly digital, urban, and environmentally unpredictable world, I contend that the socio-political perceptions and intentions toward the uncertain, unknown, and Other are influenced by a particularly Western, patriarchal hegemony protecting historically inequitable structures through policy and design. Ultimately, resilience focuses on 'hard' infrastructure, and the 'soft' infrastructure for the public health of the country is sold out to private companies, outsourcing leadership and liability in lieu of responsibility and civic duty. The frame of resilience must move beyond recreating the same inequalities post-disaster ('bouncing back') and use the crisis as an opportunity to build 'better.' Envisioning and planning for inclusive and prepared futures entails challenging the hegemonic narratives inherent in contemporary urban governance and how 'resilience' is currently operationalized.