Planning, platforms, participation: city resilience and illegal drugs in Belfast

This paper analyses a city embarking on its maiden resilience journey. Belfast suffers from common environmental, economic and social problems (e.g. flooding, unemployment and exclusion). However, the city is unique as it still struggles with the toxic fallout from its violent socio-political history – ‘the Troubles’. Despite peace and reconciliation it remains to a large extent deeply divided and socially segregated. We show that illegal drugs are a ‘chronic stress’ not yet analysed in local resilience deliberations, until this is properly problematized then Belfast’s future Resilience Strategy will struggle to deliver transformative change. We are also concerned that a predictable policy agenda scripted by influential voices renders this pressing priority of the city’s silent citizens unheard in Belfast’s resilience discussions. To combat this, we suggest that sentiment platforms could be a more effective participatory method for planning in lending life to the ‘lived experiences’ of those impacted by the drugs problem.