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Home : Community Economic Development : World Urban Forum : The Secure City

The Secure City

Part Three: A Secure City Agenda

We share a planet, a biosphere, a technical arsenal and a social fabric ... The security of one person, one community or one nation depends on the decisions of many others.

Thirty years ago, Vancouver was a very different city - architecturally, environmentally, socially, and culturally – in a very different world. Canada was at the high point of three decades of post-war growth that was concentrated largely in the urban areas. This period also represents the high water mark for intervention by central government in the society and economy. The result was high levels of government spending, relatively expansive regional government programs, and the apparatus of the state oriented toward preserving quality of life and income levels across Canada.

Habitat '76 and the World Urban Forum Thirty years ago the concern was about the dramatic growth in the world's population and the corresponding impact on the human environment (Stockholm '72) and human settlements (Vancouver '76). Out of this came a focus on issues of urbanization and sustainability that would influence models of planning, design and public policy for more than three decades, and lay the foundations for significant advances in knowledge and understanding about how to improve approaches to building and managing human settlements.

Habitat '76 has become a landmark, marking a time when Vancouver and Canada came of age within the UN and among the international community. Canada has played a leading role in promoting these issues onto the global agenda and remains committed to making substantive contributions to the dialogue on how best to create and maintain urban sustainability.

Twenty years later, the combination of cyclical and structural effects had forced a retreat. National programs initiated or supported by central government were drastically reduced, downloading of costs from higher to lower levels of government were common, fuelled by a slowdown in economic growth and a corresponding reduction in investment in the infrastructure and social safety net. From the mid-1990s, cities went through painful and severe transitions as the state lost the capacity to intervene in terms of providing transfers, income redistribution or stimulating regional economic development. Cities were forced to become the agents of their own destiny.¹

In the aftermath of 9/11 concerns are being raised about the role of the city in providing security for individuals, for communities, and for critical services and strategic installations. There is also concern about the resilience of our infrastructure and the capabilities of planning and governance frameworks to assess and respond to these types of threat. In preparation for the 2006 World Urban Forum, an ambitious research agenda is proposed that goes beyond the usual focus on national defense policy, law enforcement, and strategies for protecting private property, to include civil responsibility as a means of increasing social capital, resilient urban systems as a way to build capacity, and alternative policy and planning models that can be responsive to 21 st Century urban concerns.

The analytical framework for the research agenda is derived from John Cockell's work in which he identifies four basic parameters for the conduct of peace building initiatives:

• focus on root causes
• pay attention to differences in local conditions
• seek sustainable and durable results
• mobilize local actors and resources

Placed in the context of a secure city agenda, Cockell's framework is helpful in grounding the research focus onto root causes and practical issues that are amenable to "durable and sustainable results". The research matrix shown below is also intended to focus on issues over which we can exert control, in contrast to what Malcolm Gladwell recently described as "learned helplessness", a syndrome he describes as the insatiable passion for control and safety brought on by a preoccupation that we are powerless to influence our own destiny:

It is irrational, neurotic, panic-stricken behaviour, a wild over-reaction to a tiny uncontrollable risk while we recklessly disregard risks we could control and which kill and destroy lives in large numbers everyday -- air and water pollution, tainted food from corrupt and under regulated meat packers, drugs in sport and airplane cockpits, drunk drivers, kids with guns, corporate frauds, a prison system that incarcerates the mentally ill and encourages criminal recidivism -- and on and on and on. Unfortunately, it is also in the best interest of the media and governments to focus on the uncontrollable risks, and to pander to public fear and fascination with them. They're more sensational, more visceral. And since there's really nothing that can be done about them, you can do anything, or nothing, in response to them, and not be held accountable, or responsible. The risks we could control, on the other hand, are mundane, day-to-day, hard and expensive but not impossible to remedy, would if remedied save thousands of lives, and is the responsibility of all of us. Viewers, voters, and consumers don't like to think about such things. Messy. Complicated. Nagging. Costly. And the media, and politicians, are glad to oblige.²

Secure City Agenda: analytical framework

This framework will build on existing case examples and on-going research initiatives as well as produce original work in Greater Vancouver that will have global applicability. Capitalizing on the 30+ cities network and related research endeavours of the International Centre for Sustainable Cities, the goal is to develop proof of concept locally as a basis for demonstrating application internationally. This is in keeping with Canada's leadership role in providing effective responses to pressing and complex international problems.

Research Focus	Scale	Process	Examples	Theme	Outcomes
ADAPTIVE SECURITY Seek durable and sustainable results resilience redundancy	Services + Systems	Design + Planning	Cities PLUS Green Policy + Design	Resilient	Building Capacity alternative design models
PREVENTIVE SECURITY Pay attention to differences in local conditions risk assessment adaptability	Community	Planning + Policy	Vancouver Agreement Sustainable Environmental practices e.g. food security	Responsive	Improving Security new models for policy + planning
HUMAN SECURITY Mobilize local actors and resources civic responsibility community-based involvement	Individual	Individual Empowerment + Community Involvement	Civitas + Emilio Romagna	Responsible	Increasing Social Capital encouraging public participation

 

Adaptive Security

The Government of Canada currently spends $2.5 billion annually to build and maintain infrastructure, with provinces contributing an additional $4 billion, and local governments adding $7.7 billion. A recent study by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Public Sector Accounting Board suggests that an additional $40 billion is required to bring our systems up to an acceptable standard. This is impractical. The money is not available to invest, but perhaps more importantly, our planning models and governance structures are not adequate to ensure the security of the infrastructure. They are outdated and reflect what Moffatt describes as "supply side" or "end of pipe" approaches.³ His critique is part of a substantive case study of long-term sustainable urban systems planning in Greater Vancouver, entitled Cities PLUS Planning for Long-term Sustainability.

Cities PLUS identifies 3 integrated themes that offer a vision of the desired future of Greater Vancouver. These themes: sustainability, resilience and livability are dynamic and interconnected, representing the outcome of a series of key principles: interdependence, participation, connectivity, accountability, stewardship, equity, efficiency, diversity, adaptability, appropriateness, leadership, precaution, durability and compactness. These have relevance for a secure city agenda and resonate with the core research themes of Adaptive Security, Preventive Security and Human Security.

Moffatt's analysis of resilience as a way of managing uncertainty, coping with surprise and adapting to increasing change has significant potential to inform the research agenda on Adaptive Security and will be explored for potential synergy.

Resilience is about enhancing the personal and collective capacity of individuals and institutions to respond to and influence the course of economic, social and environmental change even in the face of the unexpected. Key principles which give substance to this theme are: adaptability, robustness, reliability, responsiveness, diversity and precaution.⁴

Cities PLUS concepts of Resilience and Adaptive Management suggest considerable promise as practical tools that may be of use in defining place-specific as well as generic attributes of Adaptive Security. Their analysis is useful as an operational framework as it connects goals and strategies to feedback and accountability mechanisms.

We intend to build on the excellence in Cities PLUS by demonstrating how concepts such as resilience and redundancy can be applied to the planning and design of infrastructure and support services systems in regions like Greater Vancouver to build in greater capacity as a way to withstand catastrophic events. Adaptive Security will draw from research and best practices that continue to inform Cities PLUS and Green design and policy initiatives that are having increasing impact on the region.

http://www.busby.ca

www.ntt.co.jp/kankyo/e/ 2000report/2/224.html

It is anticipated that leading proponents of Green Building Design will play a significant role in Charrettes and creative planning forums that will be set up to explore practical and durable outcomes of the research agenda. Another infusion of intellectual capital and practical experience to guide the research on Adaptive Security will be explored through the ideas and participation of Thomas Homer-Dixon and colleagues.

Preventive Security

It is difficult to ascertain the current state of security in Greater Vancouver as there is no public document that identifies the prevalent threats, or how vulnerable the human and physical assets of the region are. There is no consensus on a comprehensive set of benchmarks for an integrated risk-assessment. The information that does exist tends to examine issues in discreet thematic areas such as threats to communications systems, buildings, or the potential impact on economic conditions. Noticeably absent is any substantive consideration of the potential impact on the collective psyche of the region in the aftermath of a major catastrophic event. This is an interesting line of inquiry that warrants closer scrutiny in Greater Vancouver, particularly as it links to the issues of resilience, capacity building and the adaptive security research.

The research focus in this section centres on developing an integrated approach to risk assessment that can anticipate and respond to threats to physical structures and systems (energy sector, financial sector, heath services and emergency planning, food distribution and storage, governance (ports, borders etc), telecommunications, transportation, utility systems); social structures (health, education, spiritual, cooperative, neighbourhood support, social support services as well as accountability, civil liberties, enforcement, etc.); and threats to economic structures (regulatory and financial, manufacturing/production, distribution and exchange, secure information/data, and media which, contrary to popular misconception, is not a public utility). This approach to risk assessment will allow for differentiation between domestic and external threats.

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside was once a vibrant commercial and entertainment district in the economic heart of the city.  Over the past 20 to 30 years, economic decline, business closures, a large open market in illegal drugs, poverty and homelessness undermined the vitality of this historic community. http://www.vancouveragreement.ca/Agreement.htm

In 1997, the region's health authority declared that rising HIV infection rates among intravenous drug users constituted a public health crisis.  Government leaders jointly initiated the Vancouver Agreement to ensure a coordinated, effective response. Signed March 9, 2000, the Vancouver Agreement is an urban development agreement among the governments of Canada, British Columbia and the City of Vancouver.  The agreement commits governments to work together, within their jurisdictions and mandates, and with communities in Vancouver, to develop and implement a coordinated strategy to promote and support sustainable economic, social and community development. The first focus of the Vancouver Agreement is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

This type of investigation requires a broad range of intelligence data and information to understand the nature and complexity of the threats to the region, and consequently, increasingly sophisticated tools and models to assess the risks and determine the appropriate responses. Cities PLUS called for the creation of small, specialized institutions with "all-source information systems that can evaluate the full gamut of national and human security threats, vulnerabilities and assessment of risk". While this idea has merit the capacity for this type of analysis currently exists within the research community associated with the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia.

The Liu Institute was launched on the premise that scholars and practitioners working together in collaborative interdisciplinary fashion would be able to produce fresh, coherent, policy-relevant studies of value to the governance function. Current research interests at the Liu Institute link to the Harvard Program on Human Security, Global Environmental Change and Human Security at the University of California at Irvine, The MacArthur Program on Global Security and Sustainability, and the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars which supports the Environmental Change and Security Project. The potential for a research agenda to examine responsive models for preventive security is significant.

A secondary focus of the research involves a central issue of governance. Using the Vancouver Agreement and 4 Pillars Drug Strategy as a public policy benchmark, the research will explore the potential of this type of coordinated strategy by all levels of government, the private sector and community organizations to respond to security issues that are in scale and magnitude considerably larger. The idea is to bring these two areas of research together into an integrated approach to risk assessment and policy response that will be sufficiently comprehensive to address the threats to the region.

Human Security

The concept of Human Security came to international attention after a 1994 report by The United Nations Development Project. This was the first systematic effort to create a new paradigm of sustainable human development that went beyond issues of national security and human rights to include an explicit focus on the lives of people and communities.

The concept has been refined over the last decade from a focus on military, diplomatic and political issues to include concerns about individual security, public safety, human rights and freedom. Recent work by the International Federation of University Women has shown that human security is translated differently in various societies according to the level of development, democratic orientation, ethics, social attitudes toward gender, and differences in ethnic group, opinions and beliefs.

Central to the concept of human security is the idea of balance between needs and resources, rights and duties, and order and tolerance. A lack of balance leads to problems in different areas:

• unbalanced economic globalization leads to economic crisis and poverty
• unbalanced use of natural resources results in destruction of the environment, pollution and famine
• unbalanced provision of basic health services results in the spread of pandemics
• unbalanced security measures, coupled with declining civic responsibility, results in urban violence and, ultimately, terrorism.⁵

Canada has taken a clear and internationally progressive position on human security issues, primarily through the efforts and leadership of Lloyd Axworthy. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was responsible for creating a $50 million, 5-year commitment to Canada's long-standing foreign policy objectives: promoting human rights, alleviating humanitarian crises, supporting international peacekeeping and encouraging disarmament.⁶ Axworthy has continued to promote a strong vision of human security as Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues, most recently with a compelling treatise informed by personal and professional experiences in which he provides a comprehensive definition of human security with which few could quarrel:

It is in essence, an effort to construct a global society where the safety of the individual is at the centre of international priorities and a motivating force for international action: where international human standards and the rule of law are advanced and woven into a coherent web protecting the individual; where those who violate these standards are held fully accountable; and where our global, regional and bilateral institutions – present and future – are built and equipped to enhance and enforce these standards⁷.

The challenge for the research team is to demonstrate how the essential dimensions of this global society can be translated into a secure city agenda.

Two areas of focus are proposed for the research. The first involves the application of Axworthy's definition of Human Security in Greater Vancouver to assess the degree to which the regional and bi-lateral institutions are woven into a coherent web protecting the individual. The results of this analysis have a direct tie-in to the adaptive and preventive security research agenda.

The second focus will examine specific and practical ways to increase the social capital of the region through improved levels of civil responsibility and community-based participation. The research will be informed by an examination of best practices that have produced resounding success in the community of Emilia Romagna in the Po Valley region of northern Italy.

What they have created in Emilia Romagna is a diversified "cluster" model where small firms operate in cooperative networks as the key to the commercial economy .

Principles of reciprocity are applied, not only as the medium of mutual self-interest, but with gratitude, empathy, consideration, liking, fairness and a sense of community that are intrinsically valuable and valued by all. This co-op model has seen the proliferation of small firms, self-employed artisans (artigianati) as the natural institutional vehicle to practice reciprocal arrangements. Co-ops are the vehicle for delivering "relational goods" – a gamut of services offered to people that are characterized by the exchange of human relations. With relational goods, the quality of the personal interaction lies at the core of what is exchanged between the provider and the recipient, and can be optimally produced only by the provider and the recipient together. http://www.commonground.ca/iss/0306143/coop.shtml

The success of the Emilian model challenges the political dualisms prevalent in North America where participatory democracy is diminishing as more and more control over providing a social safety net is ceded to government. The interaction between political, economic and social structures in Emilia Romagna warrant investigation for potential application to our region and will be explored in the research.

 

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