Resilience and vulnerability at the urban Nexus of food, water, energy and the environment (ResNexus)

The provisioning of food, water and energy services in urban areas involves infrastructures and resource flows which are heavily dependent on each other and on the natural environment. We conceptualize this interdependence as the urban Nexus. The project investigates how the social and ecological trade-offs associated with the Nexus interact with existing relations of power in maintaining and producing urban vulnerabilities. Based on this analysis, the project derives implications for improving the governance of service provision at the Nexus, in order to meet overall resilience objectives, whilst addressing the vulnerabilities experienced by marginalized urban communities and individuals. It therefore cuts across the two research themes of ?resilience? and ?governance and democracy?. Focussing on access to infrastructures and resource flows by the urban poor in three mid-sized cities in East Africa, Brazil and Eastern Europe, the project engages with the two policy areas of ?poverty, inequality and vulnerability? and ?infrastructure and the built environment?. Through participatory vision-building workshops and inter-city exchanges of policymakers and NGO representatives, the project attempts to involve these expected beneficiaries directly in the research process. Placing central importance on users? practices and their (re)connection with policy-led interventions, the project aims to provide new insights into the deepening of democracy in urban governance. To facilitate broad-based communication, the project?s key research outputs (frames, methodologies, findings) will be converted into policy briefs, blog posts, anonymized digital archives on the project?s webpage and teaching materials for schools.