ABSTRACT
Contextualised within communities facing intertwined socio-economic challenges, we explore the possibilities afforded by dialogical transformation; an approach in which the problem as the solution offers an opportunity to rethink public agency and space in response to those challenges. Our discussion reinforces resilience discourse and extends emergent thinking on transformative spaces. It considers the underexplored role played by space in resilience discourse; equally significant, it posits dialogical transformation as attitudinally recognising that problems, and even crises, offer possibilities.
This chapter is founded on three received conditions: first, an ambiguity within resilience discourse arising from multiple, divergent disciplinary definitions and variations between resilience, adaptability, and transformation. Second is the challenge of intertwined socio-economic deprivation threatening the livelihood of communities in South Africa and the UK. Third are ambiguities arising from divergences in public space's conceptualisation.
Drawing on empirically grounded, qualitative inductive analysis, we discuss lessons (for the Global North) drawn from the experience of the Ndlovu Medical Centre in Elandsdoorn, South Africa. Facing intertwined socio-economic challenges, Ndlovu continually transforms itself, extending and shifting its public agency and use of public space. Critical is its dialogical attitude, reflecting Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogism, recognising the potential offered by working with problems rather than against them.
