乐鱼体育

A new study on the intersection of violence and economic development in cities breaks new ground by examining how communities respond to and cope with extant violence, rather than focusing on the root causes of violence in a given area. Authors , Harvard professor of urbanism and development, and , executive director of MIT鈥檚 , spoke at length about the origins, methodology, and findings of the report, Urban Resilience in Situations of Chronic Conflict, at the乐鱼 体育 on July 12. The report was supported by USAID鈥檚 .

鈥淲e made the decision that we weren鈥檛 going to produce yet another research project or study on the root causes of violence, because there is a lot of incredibly good work on that [already],鈥� said Davis. 鈥淲e wanted to take a totally different angle鈥o try to think about taking a more pragmatic approach that builds on how everyday people, who live with violence, respond.鈥�

To do this, Davis and Tirman focused their research on seven cities around the world with histories of chronic violence, creating a case study for each and then comparing results. (An eighth city, Karachi, was jettisoned because it was deemed too unsafe for research.) The comparative process allowed Davis and Tirman to develop a basic theoretical framework for how different factors increase or decrease a community鈥檚 resilience to violence. 

Defining Resilience

The term 鈥渞esilience鈥� lies at the heart of the new study. 鈥淭he idea of 鈥榖ouncing back,鈥� or returning to normalcy, is [generally] the measurement standard for looking at resilience,鈥� Davis said. 

However, she was quick to point out the problems with such a simplistic definition. 鈥淸In] cities of the developing world鈥hings are in flux. So it鈥檚 really hard to know what a 鈥榖ouncing back鈥� is if things are constantly changing."

鈥淎lso,鈥� she added, 鈥渋n many of the environments we were looking at, violence is a consequence of the way things were under normal conditions. So you don鈥檛 necessarily want to bounce back to those conditions that were producing the violence in the first place.鈥� 

Davis and Tirman sidestepped these problems by letting their research define successful resilience, rather than trying to fit their results to a prefabricated definition of the word. In doing so, they were able to identify several important commonalities in the cities and communities that displayed the most positive resilience to violence. 

鈥淥ur findings suggest that resilience appears at the interface of civilian and state action,鈥� Davis writes in the report. She underscored the significance of civilians as facilitators in both developing and implementing better security policies: 鈥淧eople who live in violence know more than academics or policymakers about what they can and can鈥檛 do to deal with the problem of violence,鈥� she said. 

Focus on Community

Davis and Tirman pointed out that the most successfully resilient cities they studied 鈥� Mexico City, Managua, and especially Medell铆n 鈥� seemed to have a number of civilian/state relationships defined 鈥渇rom below,鈥� rather than the more problematic 鈥渢op down鈥� approach. This means that civilians and communities were participating on their own terms, collaborating with city planners and with law enforcement agencies to get their needs met rather than simply being what Davis called 鈥測es men鈥� to higher authorities. 

Physical space 鈥� what Davis referred to as 鈥渢he weight of the spatial鈥� 鈥� also played a very significant role inUrban Resilience. She and Tirman made the conscious decision to incorporate physical planning and design into their research, eschewing the more typical sectoral approach to violence and security. 

This methodological break from the existing literature was particularly useful in demonstrating that violence-plagued communities are often themselves the most important agents of resilience. 鈥淐itizens have to be able to make real decisions on their own,鈥� Davis stressed in the Q&A session that followed her and Tirman鈥檚 presentation. 鈥淸They] have to feel that ownership, that autonomy of the decisions in their neighborhood, even if they鈥檙e bad [decisions], because that鈥檚 what ties them to each other.鈥�

鈥淲e think the starting point for generating resilience is really supporting and enabling communities to make dense horizontal relationships with others in their neighborhood, across sectors, that allow them to push back against perpetrators of violence.鈥� 

In other words, while the state can play a significant role in helping communities to mitigate violence, successful resilience ultimately requires the commitment and participation of the communities in question. 

鈥淭he state might have a security program, it might have a planning program, but every decision has to be made with an understanding of what鈥檚 good for that particular neighborhood,鈥� Davis said. 

Places People Want to Protect

Davis was very succinct in offering recommendations based on the study. For policymakers and urban planners, she said resilience is formed by 鈥渁 combination of good governance, security reform, and鈥nclusive urban planning.鈥� Citing examples from Mexico City, Medell铆n, and elsewhere, Davis pointed to planning policies like mixed land use, greater pedestrian accessibility, and more parks and public spaces as ways that authorities could engender the kind of community pride so crucial to the development of positive urban resilience. 

鈥淸Focus on] generating vibrant public areas where people feel invested in protecting [them] and making them better,鈥� she advised.

While many scholars have tended to look either at the state or local communities in isolation when considering violence and resilience, Davis argued that reducing violence was 鈥渁 shared objective.鈥� She thus stressed the importance of 鈥渃o-production of security,鈥� reiterating the overall notion that state and community actors need to work side-by-side in a form of what Davis and Tirman called 鈥渃ooperative autonomy.鈥� 

In addition to Urban Resilience in Situations of Chronic Violence, Davis also authored the supplementary. Both documents can be found on the . Davis and Tirman hope to add the seven individual case studies to the site soon.