Staff involved: Andrea Ascani, Riccardo Crescenzi, Simona Iammarino (PI)
The recent economic crisis has dramatically affected the UK and the World Economy. Pathways to recovery are still uncertain and far from linear and clearly defined. In response to this challenge a substantial body of scholarly literature has rapidly developed to support international and national macro-economic policy decisions in order to promote recovery and minimize the risks of future systemic crises. However, even if the social and economic impacts of the crisis are experienced at the local and urban level (where job losses and lack of economic opportunities are felt by individual communities), rigorous research on how cities are coping with the crisis and building resilience is still limited.
The focus of this project on ‘Resilient Cities’ aims to fill these gaps by looking at resilience as a regional, local and urban process that needs to be placed in a ‘global’ perspective and assessed with reference to global flows and networks of goods, capital and knowledge. The analysis of local and urban resilience in a truly global perspective is an innovative research challenge that calls for an internationally diversified and multi-disciplinary research consortium, clear aims and objectives and detailed research questions and methods. All these aspects are discussed providing a clear picture of the rationale, value added and policy relevance of this project.