Creating 'resilience imaginaries' for city-regional planning

Resilience narratives have gathered increased attention in city-regional planning over the last two decades, emphasizing holistic foresight, long-term strategic visioning, cross-sectoral integration and collaborative modes of planning. Combining such resilience narratives with the established idea of socio-spatial imaginaries, we introduce the novel concept of 'resilience imaginaries' and explore its application in the city-region of Thessaloniki, Greece. This paper illustrates that resilience imaginaries can be viewed as dynamic and politically contested visions for long-term city-regional development, collectively structured by civic stakeholders, institutionally expressed through city-regional governance transformations and materially manifested through city-regional planning interventions.

Automated summary

This paper introduces the combination of resilience narratives and socio-spatial imaginaries, and proposes the concept of 'resilience imaginaries'. It explores the application of resilience imaginaries in the city-region of Thessaloniki, Greece, and illustrates that it is a dynamic and politically contested vision for long-term city-regional development, collectively structured by civic stakeholders.