Measuring, Modelling and Enhancing Social Resilience

Social resilience is the ability of social entities to withstand and recover in the best possible way from disruptive events like natural or climate-related catastrophes, terrorist attacks, blackouts or malicious human actions. Resilience studies have mainly focused on infrastructure so far, whereas the role of individuals and communities in fostering the resilience of a region or country is less understood.

In a setting where people look out for one another and stand by one another in case of disruptive events, chances of a comprehensive and quick recovery are much better than in cases with hardly any social “glue” or cohesion. The objective of this research module is to identify ways in which cohesion of social entities can be strengthened before, during and after crises.

Researchers will yield insights into key human and institutional factors influencing social resilience at the community, regional, and country level. Using data from focus groups and existing data sets from sources such as Twitter, the team will compare social resilience between different entities over time and design early detection tools, as well as identify functional agents and relevant factors that affect social resilience.

To understand the social dynamics of interconnected social and institutional networks, complex network models will be used to simulate the societal consequences of crisis events. Our models will consider personal attributes, group composition, and “social glue” factors. Finally, cost-benefit analyses to support decision making, as well as recommendations for institutional design, infrastructure changes, and interventions are deliverables meant to enhance social resilience even in cases of weak signals for disruptions or uncertainties.