The concept of resilience originates in ecology and is used to explain the behaviour of organisms in ecosystems. This concept is increasingly being applied in other disciplines, such as social sciences and urban planning. The concept of social resilience covers how well individuals or organisations can cope with change: Social resilience is increasingly used to describe resilience within societies, districts and neighbourhoods. During the past year, Veldacademie and students have explored this concept in the field through excursions and debates.
Rotterdam Resilience Strategy
A Resilience Strategy has been formulated to increase the resilience of the city of Rotterdam. It contains seven objectives and dozens of activities. Examples include 'a more balanced society', 'making energy more sustainable' and 'increasing climate resilience'. The strategy was published in April 2016 and can be read on the website of Resilient Rotterdam.
Study in New York
In May 2016, Veldacademie organised a field lab in New York City on behalf of the municipality of Rotterdam. From a lab in Brooklyn, 16 researchers and students (from institutes including TU Delft and the EUR) worked for a week on objectives from the Rotterdam Resilience Strategy. The themes: ‘skills for the 21st century', 'health', the 'we-society' and 'strong shoulders'. The main question was: what can Rotterdam learn from this? In July, the four research teams presented their first observations to a delegation from the Social Development cluster.
Workshop Stadmakerscongres 2016
The findings and observations from the trip formed input for the resilience workshop of the Veldacademie at the Stadmakerscongres in November 2016. We talked to guests and members of the public about these themes and filled panels with ideas. This laid the foundation for cooperation between various parties in the city. From civil servant to resident, from entrepreneur to social worker. This input was then used in various workshops on the theme of social resilience. Contact details of people who want to work together, critical questions, good ideas and links to related initiatives.
And now?
For us, the 'resilience journey' has not yet ended. There is still much to be done to make Rotterdam more socially resilient. Together with our research council, we are working hard to focus more sharply on the broad concept of Social Resilience in the form of a long-term research programme. To give this more concrete form using city labs and studios, we are combining forces with Architecture Institute Rotterdam (AIR) and the International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam (IABR).
Would you like to make any suggestions, cooperate with us or find out more? If so, please contact us via Otto Trienekens (otto@veldacademie.nl).
Documentation
You can view all the information we have collected in the document below. This is a collection of working documents that were made before, during and after the trip to New York and collected by researchers from Veldacademie, students and external parties. Each chapter represents a moment on the timeline.