Meet the team: SOCIAL PROCESSES AND URBAN RESILIENCE

Who?

The team named Social processes and urban resilience is made up of urban and social geographers from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, a part of the Faculty of Geography and Geology, Jagiellonian University. Although the team members share the same study backgrounds, they specialise in various disciplines (e.g. spatial planning – Katarzyna Gorczyca, transport and rural geography and GIS – Łukasz Fiedeń, citizen participation – Magdalena Miśkowiec, Agnieszka Świgost-Kapocsi), which allows tackling the issue comprehensively.

What and Why?

The core theme of this research is resilient/ climate prepared society. The motivation to focus on such an issue lies in the fact that in the 21st century, postsocialist cities (not only) face rapid and aggressive changes resulting in the loss of green areas in cities. This is causing social conflicts and public outrage, and questioning further urban development.

The research has identified that projects led by urban activists aim to challenge and improve the living environment in the cities. For example, groups fighting for clean air or protection of blue and green areas.

This research team aim to focus on different forms of civic engagement in projects related to sustainable development and environmental justice. How can bottom-up civic initiatives influence local governments in creating the urban environment facing the problems of adaptation of cities to climate change, or how effective are urban activists and local movements in creating new forms of city management are core questions to be answered.

How?

To answer the research questions, the team will use various methodologies typical for social and urban studies. Content and discourse analyses of multiple documents and papers, interviews with urban activists and policymakers or stakeholder analyses will be supplemented with the use of GIS tools (e.g. accessibility of green areas).

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