Coordination, Response and Networked Resilience

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

The COVID-19 pandemic is a creeping crisis posing a tremendous call for effective response in nations across the globe. The basis of CORNER is the hypothesis that effective response to the pandemic lies in the dynamics between leadership by political-administrative authorities on the one hand and the reactions in the public on the other. Nations around the world are being tested on their adaptive capacity - the ability to change and reconfigure with minimum loss of function, as well their ability to ‘bounce back’ from the crisis.

CORNER provides a comparative social scientific study in Norway, Sweden and Italy and aims to learn from and improve the real-time efforts to cultivate adaptive capacity to manage the crisis. This aims at improving the resilience to both the current and future major crises.

The public health response is a situation where resource, communication and coordination capabilities are pushed to their limits. The response involves leaders aligning paradoxes and making hard decisions in a continuously evolving situation characterized by high uncertainty. In addition to being a crises to be managed, the pandemic is also a cultural phenomenon. It is a state of exception where
risks are attenuated and amplified and where principles of ethics moral values and democracy are more fluent and visible than in normal situations. The crisis actualizes fundamental questions related to digital surveillance, involving a dilemma between protecting the citizens health and well-being, and protecting their right to privacy and freedom.

CORNER analyses this situation by means of three work packages: 1) The translation of existing scientific knowledge and practical experience on risk communication in situations like the COVID-19 crisis, 2) An in situ, real-time study of crisis leadership based on observation of crisis management arenas, and 3) A study of the societal dynamics in and about the crisis combining survey methods with in-depth qualitative analysis.
AcronymCORNER
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date2021/01/012024/04/01

Collaborative partners

  • Lund University
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology (lead)
  • Roma Tre University