Resilience & the city
Subtitle: change, (dis)order, and disaster
By: by Peter Rogers
Series: Design and the built environment
Publisher: Ashgate Pub.
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Burlington, VT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 211
ISBN-13: 9780754676584; 9780754676591
Subjects: Social aspects; Cities and towns; Growth
Other titles: Resilience and the city
Description: Following the turbulent events of the first few years of the 21st century, the growth of new security and disaster measures have led to significant changes to urban design and the management of urban space. This book blends the genealogical method of Foucault with the theory of rhythms by Lefebvre to examine these changes. The spatial history of urban disaster is linked to the rhythms of everyday urban experience to offer a revised understanding of the regulation of order and disorder in the city. In doing so, the book highlights issues of 'hardening' space, the drift from civil defence to civil protection to civil contingencies and resilience; this assessment realigns the potential impact of tightening security practices and resilient ways of thinking, doing and acting on societal security. This also links to growing concerns about quality of life over the use and potential abuse of security and disaster legislation for managing social unrest. Examples studied include the increased exclusion of minorities (such as young people) from democracy and public life; security oriented interventions in the ethnic minority communities, the use of automated technologies in policing civil and minor offences (e.g. digital plate recognition and speeding) and the interplay of diverse social groups in more commercially aligned and increasingly 'securitised' public spaces of the 'entrepreneurial' city. This book highlights many significant problems with the direction of British democracy and suggests there may be both positive and negative results from becoming more resilient. While providing a critical appraisal of the realignment of neoliberal democracy at large, it also links discussion on 'gentrification', 'revanchism' and 'urban security' to a forward looking agenda for further research.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Theory, genealogy & history; title: The struggle for theory : interplay, poiesis and change; title: The struggle for history : applying theory to change; title: The struggle for the city : disaster, war, and disorder over time; title: History of the present; title: The struggle for the city : democracy, regeneration & urban order; title: The struggle for security : ordering the resilient city; title: The struggle for resilience : returning to interplay; title: Conclusions; title: Index.