Invited book review from Island Press of Ten Years of Transformative Thinking.. Review by John Plodinec, independent scholar.

Once again, Claire has asked me to review the latest in the Resilience Matters series – this one subtitled Ten Years of Transformative Thinking. The ebook, again edited by Laurie Mazur, consists of 61 short essays (plus Mazur’s Introduction, A Decade of Progress Toward a Fairer, Greener, and More Resilient Future), all of which have appeared as opinion pieces in various periodicals and in previous versions of the Resilience matters series (I was moved to wonder why there was no new material in this compilation). The ebook is free, and can be downloaded here.

The Introductory essay by Laurie Mazur sets the tone for much of the rest of the book:

“…resilience is not about “bouncing back” to the disastrous status quo. Today, the destabilized climate poses unparalleled risks to human health, safety, and economic well-being. And in a world of rising inequality, those risks are not equally shared: low-income communities and people of color are hit first and worst by climate change impacts. So, “bouncing back” to a status quo that increases greenhouse gases and widens inequality will only magnify human suffering found its combination of polemic and practicality particularly indicative of the schizophrenic nature of the book. Many of the included essays are unabashedly “progressive” – with all of the breathless “sky is falling” fear-mongering that that entails. However, there are some worthwhile nuggets, just as there have been in previous compilations. In fact, many of the essays are mixtures of both the practical and polemic.

The first paper in the first Section (Climate Adaptation and Resilience) – We Can’t Have Resilience Without Justice is typical. The author rightfully points out the loss of trust inflicting our communities and the importance of rebuilding trust if we are to reinvigorate our cities. I violently agree that rebuilding trust in both our institutions and ourselves is absolutely essential if we are to become more resilient. But then the author blames the loss of trust on slavery and structural racism, as if only people of color have lost trust in our institutions. The author offers some bland bromides (investing in education, urban infrastructure and affordable housing) that have absolutely nothing to do with overcoming our lack of trust. He goes on “in a resilient society, both opportunity and risk are shared by all.” This is preciously Polly Anna-ish. We spend more of our educational dollars on kids in our inner cities – and achieve … almost nothing. The sorry statistics on the lack of basic math and reading proficiency are almost terrifying. While the second paper also is highly polemic, it has a useful middle that lays out the characteristics of resilient systems and communities rather well:

• · Diverse components unlikely to be subject to a single point failure.
• · Redundant means of carrying out basic functions.
• · Modular systems that can function even if disconnected from the rest of the community.
• · Tight communication connections, that provide ample warning of adverse change.
• · Social and cultural capital that encourages and facilitates formation of tight connections across the community.
• · Cultural capital that gives people the confidence to take action even in the face of disaster.
• · The ability to innovate – recognizing when the usual response is not sufficient to deal with the unusual, and then formulating a novel course of action.
• I must also point out that I found some genuine nuggets amidst the activism. There’s a nice little piece by Shade Shutters and Mazur (Interdependence and its Discontents) that highlights the vulnerabilities associated with interdependencies (As an aside, Shutters has done important work on recovery from economic disasters that deserves wider attention.). Danielle Arigoni points out a growing problem for emergency planners – Older People Suffer the Most in Climate Disasters. We Need to Plan and Prepare for That. Laurie Mazur has a useful piece on how fortifying our homes can ease the homeowners’ insurance crisis. How Farmers Can Survive Tariffs – though written in 2018 – is a timely reminder of the value of diversification even in farming.
• I found many of the essays in the last section – Transportation, Infrastructure,& Built Environment – the most useful. Among the best were:
• If Roads Are Gridlocked in Rush Hour, What Happens When Disaster Strikes?
• Parks: Not Just for Picnics
• Fix It and They Will Come, a neat little piece about a UU church in NJ reinventing itself.
• Why “Middle Neighborhoods” Are the Sweet Spot Between the City and the Suburbs
• If You Build It, We Will Thrive
• Is It Time to Reimagine the American Schoolyard?
• We Can’t Build Our Way to Net Zero. I had not seen this one before. It focuses on renovation and re-use of previously built structures.

As with the previous editions, this one is filled with pumped up Progressive rhetoric and special pleading. But it also has some pieces focused on real problems and novel solutions. While I can’t recommend this ebook, I certainly can’t condemn it, either. However, if you’ve read the previous editions there’s really no need to get this one.