EDD’s founder and Drexel University professor, Franco Montalto, recently co-authored — with Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Mimi Sheller — the article “Strengthening Social Infrastructure for Climate Resilience” for the digital magazine, The Nature of Cities. In their essay, they ask:
— Who do you call when the floodwaters rise?
— Who checks in when the power goes out?
It’s not just about the infrastructure you can see, such as roads, pipes, and grids. It’s about the invisible networks of care, trust, and knowledge that hold communities together.
Across the Caribbean and the U.S. Northeast, neighbors are organizing, students are building, and resilience is growing — not in isolation, but in solidarity.
Even as federal support fades, social infrastructure is already doing the work. That’s where real resilience begins.