Which urban communities are susceptible to COVID-19? An empirical study through the lens of community resilience

Background After the lockdown of Wuhan on January 23, 2020, the government used community-based pandemic prevention and control as the core strategy to fight the pandemic, and explored a set of standardized community pandemic prevention measures that were uniformly implemented throughout the city. One month later, the city announced its first lists of “high-risk” communities and COVID-19-free communities. Under the standardized measures of pandemic prevention and mitigation, why some communities showed a high degree of resilience and effectively avoided escalation, while the situation spun out of control in other communities? This study investigated: 1) key factors that affect the effective response of urban communities to the pandemic, and 2) types of COVID-19 susceptible communities. Methods This study employs the crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the influencing variables and possible causal condition combination paths that affect community resilience during the pandemic outbreak. Relying on extreme-case approach, 26 high-risk communities and 14 COVID-19 free communities were selected as empirical research subjects from the lists announced by Wuhan government. The community resilience assessment framework that evaluates the communities’ capacity on pandemic prevention and mitigation covers four dimensions, namely spatial resilience, capital resilience, social resilience, and governance resilience, each dimension is measured by one to three variables. Results The results of measuring the necessity of 7 single-condition variables found that the consistency index of “whether the physical structure of the community is favorable to virus transmission” reached 0.9, which constitutes a necessary condition for COVID-19 susceptible communities. By analyzing the seven condition configurations with high row coverage and unique coverage in the obtained complex solutions and intermediate solutions, we found that outbreaks are most likely to occur in communities populated by disadvantaged populations. However, if lacking spatial-, capital-, and governance resilience, middle-class and even wealthy communities could also become areas where COVID-19 spreads easily. Conclusions Three types of communities namely vulnerable communities, alienated communities, and inefficient communities have lower risk resilience. Spatial resilience, rather than social resilience, constitutes the key influencing factor of COVID-19-susceptible communities, and the dual deficiencies of social resilience and governance resilience are the common features of these communities.

The Potential of Friendship: A Case for Social Resilience and New Care Optics

In this article, we call for greater recognition of friendship as a basic social relation that should play a pivotal role in re-imagining social resilience if it is to be future-proof in the face of social upheaval, such as the current pandemic. Drawing on existing research and early scoping of emergent information about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we suggest that friendship is an important component of heterogenic social realities. The specific focus of our discussion is twofold. Firstly, attention is paid to the narrow lens of social policy that privileges particular familial set-ups and living arrangements, and in doing so marginalises groups which are already disenfranchised; secondly, we consider the dangers of nationalism and Eurocentrism as they relate to these issues. We suggest that thinking in terms of friendship can open up new avenues of academic and political imagination, offering strategies with greater potential for building socially resilient communities.

PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION ON COVID-19 IN SOUTH SUMATRA: CALLING FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION

On the one hand the COVID-19 pandemic is seen as a disaster that has had a massive impact on various aspects of life, but on the other hand it is considered as momentum to urge the public organizations to be more innovative and adaptive in adapting to various types of new conditions and adjustments. Many studies have explored public sector innovation, especially in normal circumstances. While studies on the public sector innovation in a critical situation have not caught much attention from academics. This study aimed to fill the gap by analyzing the public sector innovation in South Sumatra as one of the provinces with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. There was a total of 16 innovations in this study. Content analysis was conducted to determine the types, categories, innovators, and challenges faced. The researchers found that the organizations that innovate (innovators) consisted of city governments, regency governments, provincial governments, central government representatives, and the community. Meanwhile, for the innovation category, the researchers found more innovations with types of public services and health information. The researchers also found three types of innovation categories in South Sumatra including mass/social resilience, quick response/quick wins, and public knowledge. Lastly, the challenges in implementing the innovation which includes public awareness, human resources, financial, facilities and infrastructure, and time. Academically, this study contributes to the understanding of public sector innovation in a critical situation, that innovation in such condition is an innovation that was made for pragmatic purposes and it won’t last. It is only adjusted to the situations that force people to implement physical distancing to each other.

THE RESILIENCE OF MINORITY AND FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS: A LOOK AT ETHNICITY AND GENDER

By exploring the resilience skills of African-American, Hispanic and female entrepreneurs, this study examines entrepreneurs who face great obstacles, but still start more businesses than their White counterparts (Fairlie and Robb, 2009). The experiences of minorities and women lead to the development of risk and protective factors that result in differences in resilience. Here we present a model of resilience informed by the psychology and educational literatures which illustrates how particular experiences of minorities and women enable them to develop higher levels of resilience. In this model, the adaptive cultures of women and minorities equip them to overcome the adversity which arises from their social stratification as marginalized groups. We then test this model using a nationally representative, stratified random sample of 340 Black, Hispanic and White male and female entrepreneurs. The empirical results from two-way ANOVAs, Kruskal-Wallis H tests and multiple regression analysis indicate that Blacks and Hispanics had higher social resilience than White entrepreneurs, and that women had greater self and social resilience than male entrepreneurs.

Penguatan Resilensi Perempuan Melalui Modal Sosial di Era Adaptasi Kebiasaan Baru Pandemi Covid-19

The increasing issue of gender responsiveness to women's burdens as a result of COVID-19 has become the background for the implementation of women-based community empowerment under the name "Patali Gumbira". The implementation of women's empowerment "Patali Gumbira" has become one of the issues to prepare women in adapting to the new habits of COVID-19. To build women's resilience based on social capital, their knowledge, experience, and aspirations in responding to the impact of COVID-19. In this study, the Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) approach was used, which made women the center for critical, independent, and creative thinking. The findings in this study indicate that the empowerment of "Patali Gumbira" is a form of means of women's social resilience through a structured framework of education, advocacy, and economic systems utilizing social networks, one of which is strengthening the organization of PKK women in the village public sphere. This strengthening effort is driven by the inclusion of various training including 1) strengthening women's motivation in facing adaptation to new habits due to COVID-19; 2) strengthening women's leadership in an effort to build their potential capabilities; 3) advocacy in the prevention and handling of cases of violence against women, and 4) hairdressing soft skills training as an opportunity for women's business services on an ongoing basis. Efforts to overcome social impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic are strengthening women's resilience and becoming confident in building a sense of belonging. Keywords: Covid 19, Social Capital, Social Resilience, Women Empowerment Abstrak: Meningkatnya isu responsif gender terhadap beban perempuan sebagai dampak COVID-19, menjadi latar belakang terselenggaranya pemberdayaan masyarakat berbasis perempuan dengan nama “Patali Gumbira”. Pelaksanaan pemberdayaan perempuan “Patali Gumbira” ini menjadi salah satu isu mempersiapkan perempuan dalam adaptasi kebiasaan baru COVID-19. Dalam upaya membangun resiliensi perempuan tersebut berdasarkan modal sosial pengetahuan, pengalaman, dan aspirasi mereka dalam menyikapi dampak COVID-19. Pada penelitian ini digunakan pendekatan Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR), yang menjadikan perempuan sebagai sentral untuk befikir kritis, mandiri serta kreatif. Temuan dalam kajian ini menunjukkan bahwa, pemberdayaan “Patali Gumbira” menjadi bentuk sarana resiliensi sosial Perempuan melalui kerangka sistem edukasi, advokasi dan ekonomi yang terstruktur memanfaatkan jejaring sosial salah satuanya penguatan organisasi Ibu-ibu PKK di ranah publik desa. Upaya penguatan ini didorong dengan termuatnya berbagai pelatihan diantaranya: 1) penguatan motivasi perempuan dalam menghadapi adaptasi kebiasaan baru akibat COVID-19; 2) penguatan kepemimpinan perempuan dalam upaya membangun kemampuan potensinya; 3) advokasi dalam pencegahan dan penanganan kasus kekerasan terhadap perempuan, dan 4) pelatihan softskill tata rambut sebagai peluang jasa usaha perempuan secara berkelanjutan. Upaya mengatasi dampak sosial di masa pandemi COVID-19 menjadi penguatan resiliensi para perempuan dan menjadi keyakinan dalam membangun rasa memiliki. Kata kunci: Covid 19, Modal Sosial, Pemberdayaan Perempuan, Resiliensi sosial

Understanding Climate Hazard Patterns and Urban Adaptation Measures in China

Climate-related risks pose a great threat to urban safety, infrastructure stability and socioeconomic sustainability. China is a country that crosses diverse geomorphic and climatic regions in the world and is frequently affected by various climate hazards. In this study, we propose a comprehensive analysis on the spatial pattern of major climate hazards in China from 1991 to 2020, including rainstorms, droughts, heatwaves, coldwaves, typhoons, and snowstorms, and generate an integrated sketch map on multi-hazard zones. It is detectable that South of the Yangtze River is in danger of heatwaves, rainstorms, and typhoons, while the North China Plain is more likely to suffer droughts. Coldwaves, snowstorms, and freezing mainly affect Northeast China, Northwest China, and the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. In the view of climate governance, cities are hotspots affected by intensified climate hazards in a warmer climate. There is an urgent need to incorporate a climate adaptation strategy into future city construction, so as to improve social resilience and mitigate climate impacts in rapid urbanization process. Specific adaptation measures have been developed from the perspectives of land-use planning, prevention standard, risk assessment, and emergency response to facilitate the understanding of climate resilience and urban sustainability.

The Important Role of Environmental Stewardship Groups in Supporting Human Health and Well-Being

The human health and well-being benefits of nature are well-known. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the work of environmental stewardship groups, especially those that facilitate access to and/or provide opportunities to engage with nature. To understand the impacts of this disruption on stewardship groups and their volunteers in Hawai‘i, we: (i) conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 leaders of stewardship groups on O‘ahu; and (ii) surveyed 85 individuals who volunteer with stewardship groups across the state. We found that some groups were negatively impacted by COVID-19-related funding losses, volunteer activity cancellations, and thus a reduced workforce. We also found that some groups were able to secure new pandemic-specific funding sources and increase their online presence. Many groups were able to strengthen their connections to community through efforts to respond to COVID-19 driven needs of the community, for example meeting nutritional needs of families through food or crop plant distributions. When asked what they missed the most about volunteering with stewardship groups, over half of surveyed respondents identified the social benefits of volunteering, including feeling a sense of community. Over a third of respondents said they missed engaging with the land/place. Nearly a third indicated that a lack of engagement with these groups during the pandemic had negatively affected them psychologically. Our results highlight the significant yet underappreciated role that stewardship groups play in community and individual well-being, and how a large-scale crisis can lead to innovative adaptations with important implications for social resilience.