Unmasking urban resilience: Environmental justice and the political ecology of “resilient cities”

The paradigm of the “resilient city” has been widely adopted by urban governments and global agendas. However, far from being a neutral tool for sustainability, this discourse has often been co-opted to legitimize neoliberal urban development, masking processes of green gentrification, ecological fragmentation, and community displacement. This article develops a critical resilience framework by integrating political ecology with environmental justice, exposing how resilience operates as a form of ecological neoliberalism. Through an in-depth analysis of the controversial Lagos de Torca urban project in Bogotá, I demonstrate how “resilient” planning dismantles the very socio-ecological systems it claims to protect. The case reveals how the language of adaptation is strategically used to justify rezoning, reduce protected areas, and prioritize speculative real estate interests over ecological connectivity and social equity. Moving beyond this depoliticized model requires reorienting resilience toward distributive justice, procedural equity, and the recognition of marginalized knowledge systems. Drawing on Frantzeskaki et al.'s (2025) concept of epistemological inclusivity, I argue that critical resilience must also challenge who counts as a legitimate knowledge producer in adaptation planning. Ultimately, I recast resilience not as a technocratic goal, but as a political tool for urban emancipation and socio-ecological transformation.