Vulnerability and Social Capital during Europe’s ‘Creeping’ Crises

Abstract

In the study of transboundary crisis management, supranational and international actors have traditionally been in focus. Increasingly, however, two additional factors affecting the efficacy of crisis management are coming into view. First, the object of crisis management – individuals and communities – must be better understood. Specific composition and contexts of those communities, and their potential vulnerabilities, has become a key concern in the eyes of EU and UN actors, for instance. Increasingly attention is given to the social capital underpinning resilience in these communities. Second, the nature of the crises that affect these communities can be better conceptualised as ‘creeping’. Such slow-onset crises – which COVID-19 resembles – evolve gradually over time and space, and accelerate as they co-constitute with contextual conditions. They lack the ‘big bang’ properties of terror attacks or chemical spills, but nevertheless undermine public safety and security – and compromise trust in government more broadly. This panel collects papers that explore those two developments in crisis management research.

Title	Details
Who are the vulnerable? The social construction of vulnerability during the COVID-19 outbreak in Norway	View Paper Details
Understanding communication-related vulnerability in crises	View Paper Details
Climate Change, Vulnerability and Migration: the ingredients of a creeping crisis?	View Paper Details
Vulnerability, Crises, and the Rise of ‘Big Data’	View Paper Details
Addressing individual and group vulnerabilities in crisis management: insights from eight EU countries	View Paper Details