Soft Resilience in Urban Governance

From the perspective of public administration, this paper reconstructs the "soft resilience" framework within urban resilience theory, breaking away from the traditional focus on physical infrastructure. It highlights the critical role of social, cultural, and institutional factors in enhancing urban adaptability. Through interdisciplinary integration, this paper introduces complexity theory, multi-dimensional value balancing in policy-making, and adaptive management models, systematically exploring flexible policy adjustments and feedback mechanisms in dynamic environments. It reveals the coordinating and driving role of public administration in building urban resilience. "Soft resilience" is conceptualized as a dynamic adaptation process aimed at continuous learning, feedback, and optimization to strengthen cities' capacities to confront globalization, climate change, and social uncertainties. By constructing participatory mechanisms, fostering cross-sector collaboration, and strengthening social capital, public administration emerges not merely as a crisis manager but as a fundamental driver of institutional transformation and urban resilience.