ENDURE: Inequalities, Community Resilience and New Governance Modalities in a Post-Pandemic World

We study the medium and long-term societal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, not only to understand what happened, but to ensure an "equitable, resilient and sustainable future" in line with the UN Research Roadmap for COVID recovery. Specifically, by bringing together an interdisciplinary team based in some of the countries that were hardest hit by the pandemic, we address the following:

1- Equity
Through in-depth micro-level research, the project directly examines why some populations were affected more adversely than others due to the pandemic by virtue of factors such as socioeconomic status, age, ethnic background and cultural practices. The aim of the research is to:

* understand existing inequity and accompanying processes of (de)mobilization during and after the COVID19 crisis. Empirically, we examine how disadvantaged groups (women, minorities, low-skilled workers, indigenous peoples, poorer communities) could or could not mobilize to demand their rights. We are interested in (de-)mobilizations for health equity as well as different types of mobilizations that have emerged in the context of the pandemic during lockdowns and afterward and that reveal alternative ways of expressing public demands.

* to explore the ethical considerations underpinning policy responses. We explore the extent to which policies were adequate in addressing social vulnerabilities and ask how policies may be made more equitable to ensure resilience in the future.

2- Resilience

Through multi-scalar research, we explore how societies can be made inherently resilient to cope with mounting and emerging challenges. We focus on the following dimensions of resilience:

* We use an experimental survey to examine how the pandemic impacted public attitudes towards inequality and the effect of institutional contexts on societal resilience.
* Different disciplines have proposed different understandings of resilience in recent years. Despite the volume of research interest in a host of academic fields, scholars rarely talk across the disciplines. As the ultimate result of ENDURE, we posit that a harmonized paradigm and theory of resilience is required to address the many challenges that global society is currently facing in the context of COVID-19. We seek to take steps toward bridging disciplinary canyons. Building upon dialogue and cross-disciplinary conversations about the ontological, epistemological, and normative aspects of studying resilience across disciplines and fields of research, we want to pull the pieces together to propose a unified, multifaceted and multidisciplinary view of the concept of resilience. We believe such an approach is both propitious and timely.

3- Sustainability

While equity and resilience create the future we want, the sustainability of society can only be achieved through proper governance and a healthy media environment. By studying governance mechanisms and communication through transatlantic partnerships, we develop evidence-informed advice and mechanisms for recovery and political participation processes. We examine:

* governance structures in responding COVID-19 in terms of lockdowns and vaccines and analyze how COVID-19 led to different forms of governance models;
* International cooperation during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially regarding the capacity and legitimacy of International Organizations (IOs),
* the extent to which crisis governance measures impacted democracy and freedom and the long-term transformations of society that resulted.
* the extent to which effective, ethical and accurate communication was undertaken by government officials, health professionals, researchers, scientific advisers, and the media.