Community resilience through bottom–up participation: when civil society drives urban transformation processes

Abstract

In recent years, bottom–up civil society initiatives have advanced urban transformation processes in Berlin. Following previous research suggesting that bottom–up participation could have a positive impact on community resilience (CR), we analyse the impact of engagement on Berlin–based civil society initiatives. Whilst a positive effect on resilience can be found, we identify governance processes that would be necessary to enable the full potential of bottom–up participation for CR. Resilience, understood as the capacity of a community to thrive in times of change and uncertainty, is becoming increasingly important for the functioning of (urban) communities; hence, finding ways of strengthening it is deemed necessary.