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Vulnerability, risk and resilience: Towards a conceptual framework33many cities, involving shifts in land-use patterns over timeand exposure to industrial hazards.The fictitious story in Box 2.2 unfortunately captures aset of realistic cumulative dynamics through which efforts tomanage urban safety are overwhelmed by shifting maps ofrisk over 30 years. The capacity of public institutions tomanage these processes is limited, although the decision tobuild a residential neighbourhood close to a factory could bequestioned. However, given the property values of land insidethe first ring of the metropolitan area, the housing projectmade sound economic sense and allowed the taxation ofproperty to help finance the public infrastructure.Two dimensions of the urban level deserve specialattention in regard to the challenges of urban safety andsecurity: urban spatial processes and institutional capacity atthe metropolitan and municipal levels.■ Urban spatial processesAs suggested in the story in Box 2.2, the major fact abouturban land use is that it changes. The functions performed inany given location shift over time. These functions, whetherresidential, productive or administrative, depend upon manyfactors, including those at the global and national levels. 40Patterns of spatial change and land use frame the context inwhich urban safety and security issues actually exist, thusemphasizing the importance of urban planning.One of the most noted changes in urban space overthe last two decades has been the growth of private urbanspace in the form of gated communities, a logical conclusionto the argument for defensible space. While these communitieshave, in part, been a response to growing urban crimeand concerns about security, their impacts are far greater,leading to an increasing polarization of urban space andsegregation between urban poor and middle- and upperincomegroups.The case of metropolitan Buenos Aires is a goodexample of this phenomenon. Studies of the growth of gatedcommunities show that, by 2000, there were 434 privatecommunities in metropolitan Buenos Aires. By August 2000,some 500,000 people lived in an area of 323 squarekilometres, or an area 1.6 times larger than the downtownfederal capital area, which houses 3 million people. 41 Thislevel and disproportionate land share of gated communitiesis more intense than similar developments in other LatinAmerican cities; but it shares common features. 42Analytically, these areas can be differentiated by their date ofsettlement, the level of income of the population and, as aresult, the scale and costs of residential plots and housing. 43Most significantly, they represent a segregation and privatizationof urban space. They are also direct consequences ofthe widening gap in incomes and wealth within the metropolitanpopulation and are reflected in the growing socialexclusion of large numbers of people. 44 This is well capturedin the phrase ‘la construccion del nosotros y de los otros’(meaning ‘the construction of ourselves and the others’) in astudy of the lifestyles of the gated communities. 45 Thisphrase also describes the psychological and cultural basis offear that led to, and then is reinforced by, the privatization ofurban space.The socio-spatial fragmentation within one city is wellillustrated in a description that links intra-urban inequality tothe different velocities of mobility and connectivity of threehouseholds living in metropolitan Buenos Aires: one leavingtheir computer at home in a gated community, driving intheir car along a highway to downtown white collar employment,probably in the financial sector, talking on theircell-phones; a second leaving their neighbourhood andtaking a bus to work downtown in the service economyunconnected to computer technology; and a third notleaving their neighbourhood at all. 46Urban spatial change, therefore, frames the vulnerabilityof urban groups to various risks in specific locations,whether from crime, evictions or disasters. As noted below,location in space is not necessarily coincident with the jurisdictionsof urban institutions responsible for ensuring safetyand security.■ Metropolitan and municipal institutionalcapacityWhile the issue of institutional capacity is important at alllevels, it is particularly lacking at both the metropolitan andmunicipal levels, especially in developing countries. Theinstitutional framework governing cities is complex, withnational institutions often establishing norms – for example,for infrastructure standards – or providing federal revenuethrough states or provinces to the municipal or urban level.Municipal institutions are usually dependent upon theserevenue flows, are often weak technically, except in largecities with long traditions of technical and professional training,and normally spend most of their resources onpersonnel expenditures followed by the costs of wastecollection. Local institutions in developing countries rarelyhave the capital for investment in large-scale infrastructureprovision such as water supply or electricity.Within a multilevel institutional framework andfrequently overlapping jurisdictions, urban safety andsecurity are important responsibilities, but most capacities inpolicing or disaster preparedness are notoriously weak.These problems are described in some detail in Chapters 4and 8.One aspect of weak institutional capacity is thefrequent lack of effective institutions at the metropolitanlevel. Very few cities have managed to establishmetropolitan-level capacity to manage the positive andnegative externalities of urban population density andhabitat. These externalities affect the environment, thedesign and management of infrastructure, or the multipleflows that come in and out of a metropolitan area, to name afew. 47 The historical dominance of downtown municipalitiesand their unwillingness to give up their long-held prerogativesin order to build metropolitan forms of cooperation is amajor problem at the urban level, whether in Buenos Aires,Dakar, Lagos or São Paulo. Despite the great claims made fordecentralization of responsibility to peripheral municipalities,this process also does not guarantee effective capacityand performance. Responsibility without adequate financialresources – the problem of mandate without resources –often results in poor performance. This has direct conse-One of the mostnoted changes inurban space over thelast two decades hasbeen the growth ofprivate urban spacein the form of gatedcommunities, alogical conclusion tothe argument fordefensible spaceInstitutionalcapacity … isparticularly lackingat both themetropolitan andmunicipal levels,especially in developingcountries