ABSTRACT
What good is a resilient city if it isn’t good? Good must surely mean a state where humans can flourish as natural social beings, not merely endure or survive. The current epochal crisis suggests species catastrophe to many – that is, no prospect for life let alone goodness. This is not a progressive, or even realistic, view. A critical social scientific perspective rooted in Arendtian ideals, notably faith in the human facility for ‘natality’, rejects catastrophism without neglecting the scale of epochal threat. Goodness as flourishing, not morality, is a prospect we can hold to. Surprisingly, the secular and religious notions of the good city might not be so far apart. The biblical construction of humanity as pilgrims seeking the ‘good enough’ city has resonance for the secular tradition, especially now. In a time when our species must ‘hit the road’ again, the idea of urban pilgrimage might bear reconsideration. This idea signposts resilience as a journey of re-creation, not a securitised end state. It enjoins us to seek the good enough city and not to wall ourselves in resilience.
