📣 Help Shape the Future of UKRI's Gateway to Research (GtR)

We're improving UKRI's Gateway to Research and are seeking your input! If you would be interested in being interviewed about the improvements we're making and to have your say about how we can make GtR more user-friendly, impactful, and effective for the Research and Innovation community, please email gateway@ukri.org.

Critical Human Security and Public Policy Challenges in a Post-Covid World: UK and South Korea

Lead Research Organisation: University of Bristol
Department Name: Sch for Policy Studies

Abstract

This project brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the UK and South Korea to contribute to the development of a body of knowledge, academic exchange and collaboration, and dissemination activities focusing on critical human security and public policy challenges in a post-Covid world. It draws on a team with an established and proven track record of collaboration whilst also seeks to deepen and broaden the network, contribute to the creation of a critical mass of researchers, and build the capacity and skills of early career researchers. The spread and impact of Covid-19 since March 2020 has highlighted the integrated nature of communities and different dimensions of life, and how these interact within and across policy spheres. As the health crisis has evolved into an economic, social and fiscal crisis paradoxically the responses to and the impacts of what has been a global pandemic have been highly differentiated and variegated nationally and locally affecting groups of people and places in very different ways. This collaboration will draw on critical human security as the overall comparative, conceptual and analytical framework through which to understand better the complex and integrated policy challenges of the pandemic and sustainable strategies for addressing them as both South Korea and the UK look towards a more digitally connected, post-Covid future. Through multi-stakeholder workshops and the identification of relevant and appropriate indicators and data sources the collaboration will generate knowledge creation and exchange addressing five key dimensions of (in)security: health, economic, environmental and community security as well as personal and political freedom. In establishing relevant comparative indicators and data sources and disseminating knowledge created through a range of different platforms and to different audiences the proposed activities of the collaboration will shed light on the uneven and complex challenges to human security, support inclusive and gendered public policy responses, and create an enduring and sustainable research network.
 
Description This project has highlighted the necessity to integrate and incorporate risk governance, state capacity and critical human security as an holistic approach to crisis management strategies in risk society. The project has highlighted that the the scale, impact and stringency of policy responses and state capacity were clearly different between the UK and South Korea which in turn shaped different constellations of risk and insecurity. The pandemic and the responses to it exposed and exacerbated a range of existing structural inequalities and fault-lines in institutions and social safety nets as well as generated and perpetuated new dynamics of insecurity. Low income, high debt and missing wealth buffers highlight precariousness of the financial insecurity of an increasing number of households that policy, politics and institutions are failing to address in both the UK and South Korea. The health and social care sectors were ill-prepared and insufficient and the late response compounded existing lack of investment and staffing issues. Major challenges are now confronting health and social care sectors, particularly in the UK, but also in South Korea highlighting the importance of inclusive, adequate and sustainable systems of social protection, health and social care as well as the importance of decent work and income security.
Exploitation Route This outcomes of this research might be utilised to inform strategies for crisis management that incorporate risk governance, state capacity and critical human security, and which are people-centred and collaborative rather then technocratic and institutional. The outcomes of the research might also be used to establish policy priorities emerging from the longer-term and scarring effects of the pandemic highlighted in this research. The research has also established the opportunities provided by technology and digital public services for promoting and protecting human security in times of crisis as well as for establishing post-Covid sustainable futures,. How ever the outcomes have also raised concerns around the challenges of digitalisation for critical human security particularly in relation to personal freedom,
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Healthcare

Government

Democracy and Justice
 
Description Critical Human Security and Public Policy Challenges in a Post-Covid World: UK and South Korea 
Organisation Seoul National University
Country Korea, Republic of 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Members of the UK project team (Noemi Lendvai-Bainton, Ryan Lutz, Patricia Kennett, Matthew Lariviere) went to Seoul for a knowledge exchange workshop held at the Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University on the 15-16 of September 2022. The workshop was organized by Professor Huck-Ju Kwon (Graduate School of Public Administration, SNU), The team were sharing knowledge on data sources as well as establishing critical human security conceptual and comparative framework. We very much appreciated the presentations from Dr. Yong-Kyun Kim, Dr. Jong-il Na, Ms. Goun Lee, and Dr. Eunhee Han.
Collaborator Contribution The South Korean partners contributed to discussions on the relevance of a critical human security framework, how it can be utilised and implemented in the pandemic and post-pandemic context. Papers were presented with colleagues from SNU (Huck-ju Kwon, Kilkon Ko, Suyeon Lee), Hansung University (Eunju Kim), Korea Institute of Public Administration and the Seoul Institute. In addition, the team was joined online by colleagues from the Department of Political Science, College of Charleston and School of Public Administration, University of Central Florida. Three policy makers from national government involved with digitalisation of public services, risk management and social protection also joined the collaboration and knowledge exchange workshop to contribute their expertise from a policy making and implementation perspective.
Impact Blog Series: Critical human security and post-Covid public policy Blog Series. https://policystudies.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/category/centre-for-urban-and-public-policy-research/critical-human-security-and-post-covid-public-policy-blog-series/
Start Year 2022
 
Description Critical Human Security and Public Policy Challenges in a Post-Covid World: UK and South Korea 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Twenty people attended a knowledge exchange workshop in Seoul, South Korea. The workshop included participation and presentations by policy makers and third sector organisations. The workshop generated international and comparative insights, discussion and an engagement with the concept of critical human security as an appropriate and useful framework for exploring post-Covid policy challenges and planning for recovery.

A series of papers and presentations providing a more detailed understanding of the social and spatial elements of the economic crisis, and highlighting the diverse `avenues of transmission' and the uneven impact on and varied responses of different
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013,2022