Introduction

While there is a rich set of literature on communityresilience in the face of climate crisis and naturaldisasters (Berkes and Jolly, 2002; Berkes and Ross,2013; Brown, Dayal, and Del Rio, 2012; Pfefferbaum,Pfefferbaum, Van Horn, Klomp, Norris, and Reissman,2013) as well as on relationships between resilienceand urban planning or power relationships (Bahadurand Tanner, 2014; Brown, 2014; Davoudi, 2012;Jabareen, 2013; Lombardi, Leach, Rogers, and theUrban Future Team, 2012; Wilkinson, 2012; Wilson,2014), few (Amundsen, 2012; Maguire and Cartwright,2008; Wilson, 2013) have attempted to use theconcept of resilience to understand the emergence ofcommunity-based actions to counteractstate-initiated spatial injustice and to protectpeople's rights to use space. This chapter is anattempt to tell the story of a community that triedto rebuild itself in the midst of a seemingly unjustinstitutional and political context. This case studyillustrates how a community leveraged internal andexternal resources to counteract the state'sentrenched unjust spatial practices, resulting ingetting what ‘they morally deserve’ (Sandel, 2009:10) – the rebuilding of their multigenerationalvillage.

This chapter views resilience from a cultural geographyperspective, examining ‘how cultures, individualsand societies are responding to changes’ (Denevan,1983 cited in Amundsen, 2012: 46). Berkes and Ross(2013: 6) define community resilience as the‘existence, development and engagement of communityresources by community members to thrive in anenvironment characterised by change, uncertainty,unpredictability and surprise’.