Chapter 4 explores the challenges posed by urbanisation on water quality, particularly during extreme rainfall events. The chapter traces the historical development of sewer systems designed to channel stormwater out of cities and into water bodies, emphasising the subsequent need for wastewater treatment to protect water sources. The proliferation of impervious surfaces in cities has led to increased flooding, prompting the construction of larger sewers, albeit quantity-focussed solutions. This approach, coupled with the misconception that stormwater is uncontaminated, exacerbates environmental pollution. The chapter advocates for comprehensive urban drainage management during floods to minimise water pollutants. Storm water tanks and SUDs are mentioned as means to reduce pollution loads to reach water bodies. It discusses the factors crucial for effective management, ranging from maintenance and short-term rain forecasting to the importance of pollutographs in long-term planning. Emphasising citizen involvement and a shift towards sustainable drainage techniques, the chapter provides insights for preserving urban environments amidst increasing extreme rainfall events and climate change threats.

Chapter 4 uses assemblage theory, which is an anti-colonialist theory of social and spatial construction that has traction in the Global South, to show how urban inequalities become assembled, disassembled, and reassembled over time and yet how grassroots activism for social and environmental justice and for community resilience can change the form and functions of cities. Buchanan arose at a time when the role of urban planning in the US cities was growing but largely conceived as the top–down imposition of order and dominant values on urban space. However, we are increasingly aware of just how contested and evolving the practice of urban planning and urban development are. Case studies of green gentrification from Los Angeles, California and Accra, Ghana illustrate the competing ideological perspectives on resilience in cities and the potential for and yet tentativeness of progress towards social justice in urban planning. The chapter explores the connections of racism in American land use with colonialism in the Global South, and the commonalities in the experiences of grassroots social-justice movements across cities worldwide.

This chapter reviews recent anthropological studies of adolescence and youth. Some of the earliest research in psychological anthropology focused on this lifespan period. This early work insisted that social and cultural factors shaped the varieties of adolescent experiences both within and across societies, and that the social problems of youth were a political problem rather than an inevitable outcome of a universal life stage. Systematic research on adolescence and youth did not emerge until the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. These studies are organized into four themes: (1) adolescence as a liminal period; (2) adolescent vulnerabilities that result from social, political, and economic disruptions; (3) young people as instigators and innovators of social change; and (4) young people's social worlds as worthy research topics in themselves. The chapter calls for future research on young people that focuses on individual experiences within larger systems of power, such as the historical legacies of Western imperialism. Attending to these larger systems of power will provide greater awareness of how these systems shaped past research.

Resilience is conceptualized as a dynamic developmental process encompassing the attainment of positive adaptation despite the exposure to or the experience of significant threat, severe adversity, or trauma that typically constitute major assaults on the processes underlying biological and psychological development (Luthar, Cicchetti & Becker, 2000; Masten & Cicchetti, 2016). The notion of an average expectable environment for promoting normal development connotes that there is a species-specific range of environmental conditions that elicit normal development in humans. Concerns about how childhood adversity impacts developmental processes and mechanisms have captured deep concerns in researchers in the fields of developmental and clinical psychology, developmental psychopathology, evolutionary psychology, molecular genetics, and neuroscience. Child maltreatment exemplifies a pathogenic relational environment that is far beyond the range of what is normally encountered and engenders substantial risk for maladaptation across domains of biological and psychological development. Child maltreatment is implicated in the disruption of multiple biological systems, including neuroendocrine and immunological functioning, neurobiology, and physical and mental health outcomes. Nonetheless, even though there is strong scientific evidence for maladaptation associated with maltreatment, the absence of an average expectable environment does not condemn maltreated children to negative developmental outcomes later in life. Resilience is possible across the life course.

While local efforts to decarbonize will mainly benefit the world as a whole, local efforts to adapt to climate change will benefit mainly people in cities, who will be more resilient to the extreme heat, drought, flooding and fires that planetary warming is exacerbating. Reflecting the benefits to cities of adapting, cities began planning adaptation early in the twenty-first century. However, as of the early 2020s, US cities had undertaken little adaptation (as opposed to adaptation planning). From 2000 until 2012, when Superstorm Sandy struck the city, New York policymakers focused on gathering information about the risks that climate change presents for the city, but they undertook few tangible actions to protect the city against risks such as storm surge flooding. Sandy increased policymakers’ perception of the urgency of acting to adapt, and injected $15 billion of federal funding into the city that enabled it to invest in adaptation. Yet, between 2012 and the early 2020s, the city had great difficulty implementing adaptation actions. New York City’s top-down approach to climate change adaptation underscores the difficulties that cities face implementing the costly local public good of climate change adaptation without additional assistance from higher levels of government.

This overview opens with the story of the great fire in Glarus, Switzerland, in 1861. Like those in other cities, the fire brought into clear view key elements of the insurance systems that modern societies needed to foster resilience. In its aftermath, the role of public authorities changed, reliance on new techniques for mobilizing private capital rose significantly, and the interaction of markets and states across established borders became deeper and more complex.

1. What can social work educators do to help students with mental health issues? 2. What kinds of resources are needed to help social workers recover from childhood adversity? 3. What are the human rights issues in this story?

1. Reflect on the power of personal stories. How can telling your own story of becoming a social worker help others engage in the profession? 2. In this story, the author writes about burnout and the need for a self- reflective practice. Think about how a self-reflective practice can be carried out. 3. In what way can an active relationship with your own social work story be helpful in your everyday practice?

The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and the V20 group of finance ministers address climate change impacts on vulnerable countries. This chapter introduces the interconnectedness of climate justice, economic resilience, and sustainable development. It highlights personal stories, such as Victor Yalanda from Colombia and Jevanic Henry from Saint Lucia, who share their experiences of climate change’s impacts on their communities — covering both the economic loss and the emotional devastation caused to communities. We introduce the CVF’s Climate Vulnerability Monitor — a unique study of the impacts of climate change, including fresh modelling, covering biophysical, economics and health projections up to 2100. The global community via COP27 and COP28 have agreed on the urgency of both adaptation and mitigation strategies. Yet the speed of change is not sufficient. The fate of today’s most vulnerable will soon be the fate of the world.

The growth and impact of urban environmental problems can manifest as significant stress and eventual crises for cities and their residents. The focus of this chapter is on how and why these stressors and crises are addressed in cities and the conditions under which the crises can eventually result in significant environmental policy transitions and follow-on transformations. Several different types of documented urban crises (including ecological-resource, urban spatial development, socio-economic, and extreme events) are discussed and analyzed in the chapter. Social, environmental/ecological, and infrastructural/technological drivers influence the connection between urban environmental stress, crisis, transition, and transformation. The actual mechanisms that set up and orchestrate the transition process reflect the resilience of the existing environmental and policy management regime and the magnitude of the stress and crisis. The chapter focuses on describing each of the steps in the transition and the mechanisms that connect each step, as well as the key terms and concepts associated with the process. The importance of policy system tipping points or regime shifts is illustrated.