Crisis and risk are at the intersection of natural hazard and human decisions. “Risk”, in this sense, is a construction which interrogates lifestyles, world-visions and cultures. The session aims to investigate ways to deal with natural and other disasters on local level in different time-horizons: before the crisis, during and after it. In urban planning and design, preparedness is possible and necessary, but this would not contribute to improve living conditions. Territories also require exploring new visions and long-term strategies to reduce vulnerability and external dependency regarding energy, water, food provision and social infrastructure.

Four lines of contribution are proposed: – Risk construction and deep interdisciplinary reading: work with socio-ecological rationalities. – Temporal horizons: short term actions and long-term visions. – Democracy, environmental and spatial justice: between resilience and resistance. – Forms of solidarity and forms of governance: the alliance between inhabitants and territories.