Urban
Resilience
Governance

Recov­er col­lec­tive­ly from crises: the case of Que­bec City

Description

To recov­er from a cri­sis, cities, like oth­er lev­els of gov­ern­ment, typ­i­cal­ly need to deploy extra­or­di­nary mea­sures, adopt col­lec­tive approach­es, break down inter­nal silos, and strength­en coor­di­na­tion capa­bil­i­ties. But how are these new prac­tices put in place, and how can they sub­se­quent­ly be used to address oth­er major chal­lenges fac­ing communities?

Julie-Maude Nor­mandin and Marie-Chris­tine Ther­rien of ENAP’s Cité-ID Liv­ing Lab have devel­oped a research project in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the City of Que­bec to answer these questions. 

The project will focus on the inter­nal and exter­nal recov­ery process­es and prac­tices adopt­ed in the after­math of the Que­bec City mosque attack and then the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Dur­ing these two crises, the City of Que­bec devel­oped strate­gies to respond to the needs of cit­i­zens and mit­i­gate the effects of these events. 

The research project will first aim to bet­ter under­stand how the net­works of orga­ni­za­tions that mobi­lize after a dis­as­ter over­come the chal­lenges of recov­ery. It will then exam­ine how new prac­tices adopt­ed to deal with crises can influ­ence the approach­es of munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments address­ing oth­er com­plex problems. 

This project will iden­ti­fy the levers and bar­ri­ers of post-cri­sis recov­ery; the prac­tices and skills devel­oped; and the effects of lessons learned on reg­u­lar munic­i­pal gov­ern­ment prac­tices. In col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Bureau de la sécu­rité civile of Québec City, these find­ings will be used to co-devel­op new tools with practitioners. 

Fund­ed by the Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties Research Coun­cil of Cana­da (SSHRC), the research will be con­duct­ed over a two-year period.