TRADITIONAL GOVERNANCE IN THE COPRODUCTION OF URBAN RESILIENCE: Institutional Enablers and Political Constraints

Abstract

Building urban resilience in vulnerable global South settlements is a pressing twenty-first century challenge. Building urban resilience involves addressing institutional deficiencies to mobilize resources for the delivery of urban services and infrastructures. State–civil society partnerships are effective in low-capacity settings as a step forward in the consolidation of the state, and as an opportunity for the emancipation of vulnerable communities. Coproducing urban resilience requires recognizing marginalized communities (e.g. indigenous groups), their capacity for local problem solving and governance structures for community engagement. In this article, we explore a coalition of five periurban neighborhoods in Oaxaca City (Mexico), which collaborate with the state to address flooding and drought using traditional governance. We argue that, although the recognition and mobilization of traditional governance has enabled the coproduction of public services (adaptation), it has been limited in delivering radical governance transformations. Traditional governance may prevent neighborhood leaders from reaching government positions to secure further resources required for the construction of urban resilience. The article contributes to debates on coproduction, explaining how traditional governance enables the coproduction of infrastructures and service delivery, but is limited in forwarding deep societal transformations necessary for resilience building in vulnerable contexts of the global South.