Four PhD students from very different backgrounds, institutes and countries found themselves debating during the International Resilience Conference (Arizona University, March 2011) on why they had a so different perspective about urban resilience.

Few months later one of them proposed to organize an international workshop in order to address meanings and perspectives of resilience thinking applied to urban systems in order to set a common research framework. In November 2011, they held the First International Workshop on Urban Resilience in Barcelona, and based on its success they edited a book and stated to set up a network of researchers interested in this discussion.

In 2012 the first book titled “Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Urban Resilience” was published launching also the blog of the Urban Resilience Research Network.

Thanks to more than 5k downloads of their book only during the first year, and the increasing number of their mailing list members from all around the globe, in 2016 a new website of the Urban Resilience Research Network has been launched and contributions from top scholars are now offering critical perspectives driving researchers in dealing with urban resilience most challenging and recent issues.

However, we would like to think that this is only the beginning. You’re welcome on board contributing to our blog and to urban resilience research advances.