Critical flows throughout the Covid-19 pandemic – A longitudinal study on interdependencies and resilience in a Swedish context

Modern societies rely on critical flows of essential goods and services to ensure societal safety. The covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of upholding critical flows during a crisis. This comprehensive study provides novel insights into interdependencies and resilience of critical flows by carrying out a longitudinal and holistic study throughout the pandemic in Sweden of four sectors: transport, energy, info-com, and food. News articles concerning actual and potential impacts, interdependencies, and statements of preparedness and resilience on critical flows were used as the primary material. 300 different sources generated 8076 news and opinion articles. 194 articles were included, from which 411 flow incidents, 298 flow interdependencies, and 191 accounts on flow resilience were analyzed. Authority reports were used as secondary material for validating and contrasting the primary findings. Our findings outline the nature and scale of critical flow disruptions and their complex interdependencies during the entirety of the pandemic. Several conclusions are drawn. The main drivers of disruptions were due to cascading effects across critical flows, followed by restrictions to contain the virus. Despite fear and speculation of potential flow disruptions and deemed low preparedness, the studied sectors coped well with the pandemic as no widespread societal consequences were observed – suggesting high resilience. The discrepancies between potential and actual disruptions and limited accounts of interdependencies in the material reveal a limited collective understanding of flow disruptions and their intricate interdependencies. This underscores the importance of a holistic understanding of critical flow complexity and improved cross-sectoral governance of flow-related risks.