Since the beginning of 2023, we at the betterplace lab have been researching the resilience of civil society and how civil society can increase resilience. But first things first.
A buzzword, no doubt, but possibly a useful one. We understand it to mean the ability of a system to respond adequately to setbacks and (ongoing) crises by adapting to new conditions. The goal is not simply to restore the previous state, but rather to continuously adapt to the future, to further crises and uncertainties.
According to the model by Rammler and Hafner (2019), resilience can be further differentiated on a continuum between a) the (short-term) preservation of robustness in relation to future crises and b) a (long-term) systemic transformation. This continuum needs to be managed and balanced both politically and socially: As a society, we need to maintain an inner stability (identity, security, reliability) on the one hand and establish a flexibility (agility, openness, creativity) on the other, not only to learn how to deal with ever new crises, but also to be able to sustain a purposeful, comprehensive socio-ecological transformation through and despite ongoing crises. This balance between short-term and long-term, preservation and transformation, stability and flexibility is what makes the concept of resilience so exciting and significant.
Resilience is not just a question of how much I can endure; it is also a question of how much I have to endure. The structural conditions of our environment can promote susceptibility to crises (e.g. through poor working conditions in care work) or mitigate it (e.g. through social security systems in the event of job loss). Individual resilience is always finite - social systems can help to ensure that it is not overwhelmed. On the other side, social systems cannot prevent every crisis, so a certain degree of individual and collective resilience must be present.
We therefore see resilience as a systemic ability that can be researched accordingly within different systems. In this project – unlike in psychology – we do not focus on the resilience of an individual person. Instead, we are interested in the resilience of civil society for two main reasons:
Civil society is an essential player in crisis management: Quicker to act than politics and more oriented towards the common good than the economy, over 600,000 associations, 30,000 foundations and 25,000 social enterprises in Germany (Datenreport Zivilgesellschaft 2019) take on a wide range of tasks in a self-organized and voluntary manner to cushion the impact of crises and protect disadvantaged groups in particular. In doing so, they create the framework for civic engagement and give citizens an active role in dealing with the crisis, strengthening their self-efficacy as well as solidarity and cohesion in society. One example: Immediately after the start of Russia's attack on Ukraine, social organizations organized and orchestrated countless offers of help overnight. With impressive innovative strength, effective, scalable solutions were created to support people both locally and on the run: with private accommodation (e.g. #UnterkunftUkraine), everyday goods (e.g. Spendenbrücke Ukraine) or psychological care (e.g. Krisenchat).
At the same time, civil society itself is susceptible to crises: Social activists and employees in the social sector suffer more than average from burnout, depression and poverty in old age. Almost 50 percent of the social entrepreneurs who took part in the 2018 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum stated that they had struggled with burnout and depression at some point (Raja 2020). The Wellbeing Project also cites similar figures (Severn and Murphy Johnson 2020). One reason for this is the often precarious and project-based financing from which the sector suffers. At the same time, the demands ("to make the world a better place") are enormous, the challenges and crises far too great and complex to solve alone. This awareness can easily lead to excessive demands and tension. A high level of intrinsic motivation quickly pushes personal boundaries into the background. In the long term, this has a huge impact on the mind and body.
A healthy society needs a vibrant civil society – even more so in times of crisis. Promoting and protecting this is the central concern of this project. If crises threaten the existence of social organizations, they have little room to pursue their social missions, which in turn weakens society in the face of the next crisis – a vicious circle.
Most people get involved in loose or fixed associations. These social organizations are also an important factor for the activists in order to experience security, self-esteem, self-efficacy and community. Particularly in times of uncertainty, this is where – alongside the family – self-assurance and social impact can arise. When we talk about how the resilience of civil society can be increased, we are looking in particular at organizations, i.e. organizational resilience.
The sum of the social actors in civil society is of particular importance. Instead of competition, civil society stands to a large extent for the exchange of positions and perspectives, self-efficacy, solidarity and encouragement. Civil society steps in where politics only appears to be able to act to a limited extent – and thus also takes on important functions in times of crisis. The COVID-19 crisis has made this just as clear as the so-called "refugee crisis" in 2015, where active citizens formed volunteer support networks, demonstrated innovative strength, took in refugees, offered language courses and carried out integration work. Especially in times of crisis, civil society promotes social participation and enables active action and co-design. This sectoral resilience and civil society's contribution to general social resilience is the second focus of the project.
In summary, in the research project "The resilient civil society" we are investigating resilience at organizational and sectoral level and pursuing the following overarching objectives:
Research: The concept of resilience is to be applied and researched specifically to the situation in the social sector. The aim is to gain a functional understanding of the stressors, resources and consequences – at both organizational and sectoral level (civil society).
Networking: We see research as a participatory process in which we invite interdisciplinary experts to exchange ideas in order to compare knowledge, verify theses and stimulate networking. Especially in a dynamic field such as resilience research, continuous dialog is essential and is already a first step towards dissemination.
Empowerment: The research is strictly application- and action-oriented. The knowledge gained is inevitably aimed at recommendations for social organizations as well as for institutions of framework design and sectoral funding (from politics, foundations or business). Communication in target group-sensitive formats as an essential knowledge resource for discourse and future decision-making processes is given appropriate priority in this project.
"The resilient civil society" is a research project of the betterplace lab, funded for the period January 2023 to June 2024 by the Deutsche Stiftung für Engagement und Ehrenamt.