When Resilience Turns to Resistance: A Detroit Case Study

Abstract

This article is the theoretical accompaniment to Resilience/Resistance: A Short Film About Detroit. The short film offers a character study of two sisters, Annette and Earlene, long-time residents who illustrate the broader story of the present-day negotiation between resilience and resistance at stake within the City of Detroit. This character sketch brings to bear an emotionally ranging response to the complexities of the recent re-urbanism driving the public narrative of Detroit. Working to complicate the use of the term ‘resilience’ within this redevelopment story, this piece and the accompanying short film offer the possibility that resilience and resistance are entangled phenomena. Resilience/Resistance asks the question: resilience for whom? In the case of Detroit, I propose two modes of resilience that coexist yet conflict: mechanical (outcome-oriented) and ecological (process-oriented) resilience. I argue that where the “urban core” of the downtown revitalization project strives for mechanical resilience, long-time residents embody ecological resilience by contrast. , Within the tension between mechanical and ecological resilience frameworks dwells the possibility – or necessity – of resistance.