Abstract
Social resilience is an essential need for societies faced with adverse events such as pandemics. The recent COVID-19 outbreak has affected many communities around the globe. In fact, in addition to unprecedented mortality and infection rates, it has also caused major anxieties and social problems. Iran has been one of the hardest-hit countries and is among those that have experienced multiple waves of the outbreak. In this study, we try to identify major factors that can contribute to urban social resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic in Urmia, a major city located in Northwestern Iran. Data for the study were collected via a field visit and a semi-structured interview survey involving 194 participants. Findings show that several factors related to the following three themes play a significant role in promoting social resilience: (1) participative and supportive governance, (2) resource accessibility, and (3) citizen participation and lawfulness. Results can inform local authorities in Urmia and other contexts to deal with COVID-19 and similar pandemics.
Highlights
Since the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared as a pandemic in early 2020, massive changes have occurred across the globe that have negatively affected people in all spheres
Given the importance of achieving social resilience in this city to reduce the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study has tried to identify the factors that promote social resilience
Non-probability or non-random sampling as convenience sampling was employed [43]. This choice was made because the samples should be available quickly and according to the conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the city
Summary
Since the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared as a pandemic in early 2020, massive changes have occurred across the globe that have negatively affected people in all spheres. Beyond bouncing back to the initial equilibrium level, an optimal recovery capacity for a community can be considered a successful adaptation to new situations and the ability to learn from disruptive events to have a high quality of functioning This process leads to the capacity for creativity as a part of the recovery process when resilience is increased. According to Maclean et al (2014, p.145), “social resilience is the adaptive and learning capacity of individuals, groups and institutions to self-organize in a way that maintains system function in the face of change or in response to a disturbance” [15] These capacities can play an essential role in the affected communities during a crisis such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
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