Deconstructing the fragile city
Exploring insecurity, violence and resilience
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12243086 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Muggah (0000-0003-1754-3127, Igarapé Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 345-358 |
| Publication date | 2014-05-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Urbanization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0956-2478 • E-ISSN: 1746-0301 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0956247814533627 |
| OpenAlex | W2094431389 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 42 |
| References cited | 44 |
An emerging social category – the fragile city – can be described as a discrete metropolitan unit whose governance arrangements exhibit a declining ability and/or willingness to deliver on the social contract. Fragility is thus no longer ascribed by decision makers and analysts exclusively to nation-states and federal institutions. Rather, fragile cities are being reconceived as the primary sites of tomorrow’s warfare and development. Yet, surprisingly little is known about them. When do cities “tip” into fragility? How is fragility distributed within and between neighbourhoods? What allows some cities to cope, adapt and rebound from external and internal stresses? This article, drawing from emerging theoretical and policy literatures, finds that urban fragility is neither inevitable nor irreversible. To the contrary: it is the very resilience of cities, their neighbourhoods and institutions that is often overlooked in efforts to promote stability and development. Fragile cities themselves are constituted of sources of local resistance and agency that, in some cases, can be reinforced and from which positive lessons can be learned
Agency (philosophy · Business · Corporate governance · Development economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Fragility · Geography · Metropolitan area · Political economy · Political science · Psychological resilience · Resilience (materials science · Social science · Sociology · Unit (ring theory · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Homelessness and Social Issues · Psychology · Social Psychology
Police Peacekeeping
The Fragility of the Labour Corridors to Costa Rica and the United States
UN Stabilisation Operations and the Problem of Non-Linear Change
The unbearable resilience of Medellín
Cities, Violence and Order
A new research approach for Peace Innovation
Karachi
The city the earthquake built
The lack of organizational learning in slum upgrading success
International experiences of criminal violence and delivery of urban basic services
To engage or not to engage Haiti’s urban armed groups? Safe access in disaster-stricken and conflict-affected cities
What is urban violence
Street trading in the shadows of the Arab Spring
Critique of Urban Violence
Inequality and interconnectivity
From Parliament to Platform
To minimise that risk, there are some costs we incur’
International law applicable to urban conflict and disaster
Resilience, Fragility, and Robustness
An Exploratory Study of Crime
Smart as (un)democratic? The making of a smart city imaginary in Kolkata, India
On the Fringes of Urban Justice
We are your brothers, we will know where you are at all times’
The fragility in the land of refugees
Toward an Urban Security Research Agenda in IR
International migration, cross-cultural interaction, and the development of personal wisdom
Modern political economy, global environmental change and urban sustainability transitions
How international rents moderate business cycles’ relationship to high homicide rates
Multi-dimensional conflict and the resilient urban informal economy in Karachi, Pakistan
Next, it will be you”
Institutionalizing participatory slum upgrading
Understanding the politics of shelter in three African cities; the contribution of political settlements
Fragile cities in the developed world
Are armed conflicts becoming more urban
Qué explica la violencia letal en Paraguay? Un estudio con intención comparativa
San Juan, the Fragile City
The afterlives of state failure
Local government dissolution in Karachi
The Myth of Formality in the Global North
Hybrid governance and disaster management in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Monrovia, Liberia, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Security, Resilience and Participatory Urban Upgrading in Latin America and the Caribbean
Hybrid security governance, post-election violence and the legitimacy of community-based armed groups in urban Kenya
Preventing and Reducing Armed Violence in Urban Areas
Failures of the state failure debate
Modernity at large
Quasi-States
Environment and Urbanization
Urban violence
Rio Tries Counterinsurgency
Cities, War, and Terrorism
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
The Global City
Environmental Criminology
Introduction to Urbicide
Military operations in urban areas
Violence and humanitarian action in urban areas
Gangs, Urban Violence, and Security Interventions in Central America
Urban Violence and Insecurity
The city as arena, hub and prey patterns of violence in Kabul and Karachi
Assessing spatial patterns of crime in Lima, Ohio
Global cities and the transformation of the International System
Cities and Conflict in Fragile States in the Developing World
Informality and Political Violence in Karachi
Urban Governance Beyond the State
Integrating feral cities and third phase cartels/third generation gangs research
Contributions to Urban Sociology
Aid in a city at war
The New Middle Ages
The Dynamics of Criminal Governance
Infrastructural violence
| Unique citing works | 42 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,2 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 42 |