On the path toward the Reframing Urban Resilience Conference 2028, the Urban Resilience Research Network is organising a Symposium to gather in Barcelona the Board members of the network and 25 other scholars to discuss where the research on urban resilience fell short and why. These reflections on the shortcomings and “dead ends” of resilience research a shortcomings and “dead ends” areis are much needed, providing an opportunity to critically assess the state of the art and share with peers our concerns, bottlenecks and potential ways forward for resilience, looking at the pathway toward 2050.
Nowadays, the complexity of urban resilience definitions, approaches, and frameworks seems already widely explored. Risks and conceptual trade-offs were traced and discussed in the last 10 years, and a research agenda for the 21st century was published in 2018, addressing the urban resilience implementation gaps. Recently, scholars have built the storyline of urban resilience before and after COVID-19, hoping for major urban renaissances, looked at emerging synergies between climate change adaptation and health, adaptation and regenerative development, leading to a reframing challenge, to discuss how to shape the next urban resilience agendas after 2030. The literature on climate change adaptation has also evolved consistently, and has recently been recently mapped, as has the literature on assessing climate plans to track resilience implementation.
In the light of this experience in urban resilience research, the symposium constitutes a first common reflection around urban resilience limits and ways forward, offering inspiration and guidance on w around which are the key points to discuss at the Reframing Urban Resilience 2028 Conference.