What is the background and foundations to the Inclusive Recovery Cities model?
Recovery is a global phenomenon, but it is very clear that while there are common features to what recovery looks like in different parts of the world, there are also notable differences in how recovery grows and spreads. The theory behind that is partly based on the idea of recovery capital (Granfield and Cloud, 1999) and its division into three component parts (Best and Laudet, 2010)—personal, social, and community components.
Personal capital is about the resources that the person can draw upon like resilience and self-esteem, but what matters is also the support networks around the person (social capital) and the availability and accessibility of resources in the community (community capital).
In the original paper about Inclusive Recovery Cities, Best and Colman (2018) identified some of the unique and innovative community assets that three European cities were drawing on to promote recovery and increase its salience and visibility within the community. The model is inclusive in the sense that it targets those at all stages of recovery, visible and hidden, affected others, and family members within an approach that embraces multiple pathways to recovery.