Society for Critical Studies of Crisis (SCSC)

A New Lund University Social Sciences Strong Research Area on:

Crisis Inequalities and Social Resilience (CISR)

This strong research area in Crisis Inequalities and Social Resilience (CISR) arises from collaboration organically developed over time between the Initiative for Research on Social Resilience and the Society for Critical Studies of Crisis (SCSC), Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University. The collaboration has provided important research thanks to a series of international webinars; conceptual and methodological workshops; and peer-reviewed publications. Our strong research area consolidates a range of senior and early career researchers, who through their combined expertise apply a critical lens for identifying and analyzing the entanglements between social resilience, crisis, and socio-economic inequalities. In this strong research area, we respond to an ethical call for critique of local and global inequities, as enmeshed with uneven distribution of resources, unequal opportunities, and skewed rights in crisis circumstances and thereby also engage with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CISR connects to research conducted at the various departments under the Faculty of Social Sciences and, therefore, holds promise of long-lasting broad scholarly support, excellence in both breadth and depth, and high-level scientific and societal impact.

Main Applicant:

• Helle Rydström, Professor, Department of Gender Studies, Lund University.

Co-Applicants:

• Annette Hill, Professor, Department of Communication and Media, Lund University,
• Simon Turner, Professor, Division of Social Anthropology, Department of Sociology, Lund University.

Coordinator Social Resilience Group:

• Teres Hjärpe, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Work, Lund University.

Lund University Faculty of Social Sciences Involved Scholars:

• Carlo Nicoli Aldini, Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology of Law.
• Soumi Banerjee, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Social Work.
• Martina A. Caretta, Senior Lecturer, Department of Cultural and Economic Geography.
• Catia Gregoratti, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science.
• Nils Gustafsson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Strategic Communication.  
• David Harnesk, Post-Doc. & Senior Lecturer, LUCSUS.
• Mine Islar, Associate Professor, LUCSUS.
• Sara Kauko, Post-Doc. Department of Gender Studies.
• Yunhwan Kim, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology.
• Mikael Linnell, Post-Doc. & Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology.
• Martin Lundqvist, Post-Doc., Department of Communication and Media.
• Tove Lundberg, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology.  
• Chris Mathieu, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology.
• Claudia Di Matteo, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Social Work.
• Andreas Mattsson, Researcher, Department of Communication and Media.
• Patric Nordbeck, Post-Doc., Department of Psychology.
• Azher Hameed Qamar, Post-Doc., School of Social Work.
• Juan Antonio Samper, Ph.D. Candidate, LUCSUS.
• Priscilla Solano, Senior Lecturer, Department of Gender Studies.  
• Marlene Wiggill, Associate Professor, Department of Strategic Communication.
• Hui Zhao, Post-Doct., Department of Strategic Communication.

May 17 at 9.30-16.15

Zoom:  https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/69020345388

IRL: Room 108, School of Social Work, Lund University

Launching Global Discourse Special Issue

Research articles: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/gd/12/3-4/gd.12.issue-3-4.xml

At this hybrid symposium, editors, and authors of the Global Discourse Special Issue: “Critical Explorations of Crisis: Politics, Precariousness, and Potentialities”, will present and discuss their contributions. Apart from the speakers in the sessions, the symposium will be opened and closed by Editor in Chief Matthew Johnson, and editors Helle Rydstrom and Mo Hamza from Lund university. No RSVP needed. Welcome!

PROGRAM:

9.30: Welcome

Helle Rydstrom, Society for Critical Studies of Crisis & Teres Hjärpe, Social Resilience Group.

9.45: Introduction to Special Issue

Global Discourse Editor-in-Chief Matthew Johnson.

10-11.30: Session 1 Chair: Priscilla Solano. Moderator: Simon Turner.

• Didier Fassin: “Preface: Crisis as Experience and Politics”.
• Sylvia Walby: “Crisis and Society: Developing the Theory of Crisis in the Context of Covid”.
• Heidi Gottfried: “Crisis and Change: The Politics of Potentialities (Reply to Walby)”.
• Ravinder Kaur: “Crisis Futures: Covid-19 and the Speculative Turning Point of History”.

LUNCH BREAK: 11.30-12.30

12.30-14.00: Session 2 Chair: Rishi Jha. Moderator: Catia Gregoratti.

• Henrik Vigh: “Slow Crisis: Critical Continuities in Bissau and Beyond”.
• Helle Rydstrom: “The ‘Hardship’ of Ordinary Crises: Gendered Precariousness and Horizonsof Coping in Vietnam’s Industrial Zones”.
• Jonathan D. London: “Social Reproduction meets the World Market (Reply to Rydstrom)”.
• Anne-Meike Fechter: “Humanitarianism, Mobility and Kinship (Reply to Zhukova)”.

COFFEE/TEA BREAK: 14.00-14.30

14.30-16.00: Session 3 Chair: Annette Hill. Moderator: Azher Hameed Qamar.

• Steffen Jensen & Nanna Schneidermann: “Surviving in Overcome Heights: Living in and Alongside Crisis in Cape Town”.
• Jesper Bjarnesen: “The Politics of Urban Displacement and Emplacement in Overcome Heights (Reply to Jensen and Schneidermann)”.
• Jeff Hearn: “The Place and Potential of Crisis/Crises in Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities”.

16.00-16.15: Closing of Symposium

Mo Hamza, Society for Critical Studies of Crisis.

16.15-16.45: Meeting

Presenters meet with Global Discourse Editor-in-Chief Matthew Johnson.

16.45-18: On-Campus Gathering

Room 108, School of Social Work, Lund University.

Participants

• Bjarnesen, Jesper, Senior Researcher, The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala University, Sweden.
• Fassin, Didier, James D. Wolfensohn Professor, Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton University, USA.
• Fechter, Anne-Meike, Professor, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, UK.
• Gottfried, Heidi, Professor, Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, USA.
• Gregoratti, Catia, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Lund University, Denmark.
• Hamza, Mo, Professor, Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety, Lund University, Sweden.
• Hearn, Jeff, Senior Professor, Department of Human Geography, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Sweden.
• Hill, Annette, Professor, Department of Media and Communication, Lund University, Sweden.
• Hjärpe, Teres, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Work, Lund University, Sweden.
• Jensen, Steffen, Professor, Department of Politics and Society, The Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Aalborg, Denmark.
• Jha, Rishi, Researcher, School of Social Work, Lund University, Sweden.
• Johnson, Matthew, Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, Editor-in-Chief, Global Discourse.
• Kaur, Ravinder, Professor Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• London, Jonathan D. Associate Professor, Global Political Economy, Leiden University, The Netherlands.
• Qamar, Azher Hameed, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Social Work, Lund University, Sweden.
• Rydstrom, Helle, Professor, Department of Gender Studies and Visiting Professor Division of Social Anthropology, Lund University, Sweden.
• Schneidermann, Nanna, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Moesgaard, Aarhus University, Denmark.
• Solano, Priscilla, Senior Lecturer, Department of Gender Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
• Turner, Simon, Professor, Division of Social Anthropology, Lund University, Sweden.
• Vigh, Henrik, Professor, Center for Global Criminology, Institute for Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Walby, Sylvia, Professor, Department of Law and Criminology, School of Law and Social Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.

March 2, 14.00-16.00

Zoom link: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/69020345388?pwd=M2pCczFFbE5oa0N6NlpyVmpNV2Y1UT09

Abstract:

What stimulates mental wellbeing under and after a public health pandemic? What can the choice of communication strategy mean to vaccine uptake in different communities? In this webinar, scholars in Psychology, Media and Communication and Strategic Communication will elaborate on social resilience in relation to mental and physical health following COVID-19. The webinar is moderated by Dr. Hui Zhao, Postdoctoral researcher at the department for Strategic Communication, Lund university. 

Speakers:

Dr. Qian (Sarah) Gong, Associate professor, Department of Media and Communication, University of Leicester, UK.

Prof. Ian Somerville, Head of School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, UK.

Speaking on: Co-design, co-deliver and evaluate a COVID-19 vaccine uptake communication intervention and the resilience of Chinese communities in England and Wales.

Dr. Yunwhan Kim, Senior Lecturer at the department for Psychology, Lund university.

Speaking on: COVID-19 and Post Traumatic Growth

Dr. Amoneeta Beckstein, Assistant Professor, the Department of Psychology, Fort Lewis College, Colorado, USA.

Speaking on: Maximizing Mental Wellbeing and Resilience during and after Pandemics  

In spring 2023, the SCSC will continue the webinar series on Crisis and Social Resilience. The webinar series is the result of a collaboration between the SCSC and the Social Resilience Theme launched by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University. The Social Resilience Theme is devoted to stimulating critical cross- and interdisciplinary research on resilience, theoretically, methodologically, and empirically. Social resilience and crises tend to be intimately intertwined with one another. With this webinar series, we welcome various audiences to participate in examining social resilience in crisis times as shaped in various contexts. 

Social resilience has been understood as the “ability of groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances as a result of social, political and environmental change” (Adger 2000). The webinar series critically considers this approach as an entry to advance social sustainability research. The series thus sheds light on the ways in which a social science perspective on resilience distinguishes itself from other disciplinary understandings. That is, when is resilience ‘social’ and how do various disciplines render the notion meaningful? 

With the series, we wish to promote the development of critical scholarship and establish an interdisciplinary network of scholars interested in pursuing research on social resilience in crisis times. In 2 webinars in spring 2023 Swedish and international scholars will discuss crisis and social resilience in relation to the topics of Public Health and Resistance.

Please click on each webinar’s link to read the abstract and attend on Zoom. 

Webinar 2023:1, PUBLIC HEALTH, CRISIS, SOCIAL RESILIENCE

Speakers:

Dr. Qian (Sarah) Gong, Associate professor, Department of Media and Communication, University of Leicester, UK

Professor Ian Somerville, Head of School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, UK.

Dr. Amoneeta Beckstein, Assistant Professor, the Department of Psychology, Fort Lewis College, Colorado, USA.

Dr. Yunwhan Kim, Senior Lecturer at the department for Psychology , Lund university.

Moderator:

Dr. Hui Zhao, Postdoctoral researcher at the department for Strategic Communication, Lund university.