Sense of Community and Spatial Agency: Key Elements of Resilient Communities

Abstract

Currently, having resilient communities is the aim of many cities worldwide. Governments officials, urban designers, planners, architects, researchers, stakeholders, economists, sociologists and even epidemiologists are deeply concerned about reaching this goal. Last year, this goal gained tremendous importance, encouraging governments worldwide to look for implementing different strategies such as economic recovery plan, design guideline for public spaces, safe mobility public transport, new materials and design implementations, and new ways of work and collaborate through distance. However, besides these economic and managerial strategies, there are other components that enhance resiliency among communities such as sense of community and spatial agency. Sense of community understood as a feeling that members have of belonging, to matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment together. The relationship between people and places is dynamic and transactional in nature in which agency is an expression of power. Spatial agency is what defines us (the individual and the collective) through our practices in a specific place. Through this essay, we will illustrate how these two components play a significant role in the edifice of urban life while enhancing resiliency among communities. People and places are deeply intertwined; the design of the built environment certainly could enhance urban resilience, but it cannot do much without strong bonds between people and between communities and cities.