Abstract
Urban resilience is frequently discussed through infrastructure, municipal programmes, and formal institutions, while the everyday social arrangements that help residents manage uncertainty receive less systematic attention. This article examines how informal social infrastructure can strengthen collective agency while also reproducing exclusion in urban communities, using Makassar, Indonesia, as a contextual lens. It integrates scholarship on social capital, collective efficacy, urban informality, social infrastructure, and resilience through a structured literature review and critical conceptual synthesis. The review strategy combines international theoretical literature with studies concerning Makassar’s urban transformation, informal settlements, community networks, and social vulnerability. Rather than treating social ties as uniformly beneficial, the analysis distinguishes bonding, bridging, and linking relationships and considers how each can affect access to information, resources, collective decisions, and institutional recognition. Four mechanisms emerge from the synthesis: everyday mutual aid; informal brokerage and gatekeeping; spatial change and network disruption; and unequal voice in community decision-making. These mechanisms support a conceptual model in which informal social infrastructure produces differentiated outcomes according to network openness, accountability, and connections to formal institutions. The article contributes a critical account of urban social management by explaining why dense community ties may generate both resilience and social closure. It proposes an equity-oriented research agenda and practical principles for community programmes in Makassar, including inclusive representation, transparent resource allocation, protection of autonomous associations, and evaluation of who benefits and who remains unheard. The findings are a literature-based synthesis, not new field evidence, and the proposed relationships require empirical testing.
