What role for the voluntary and community sector in promoting community resilience?

The recently published UK Government Resilience Framework (Cabinet Office 2022) renews a commitment to a “whole-of-society” approach where strengthened partnerships with the voluntary and community sector (VCS) are seen as an important way of protecting communities. The Government claims they “will support greater community responsibility and resilience, driving a cultural shift where everyone who can, is prepared and ready to take action and support themselves during an emergency” so that “those needing more specific or tailored support can be prioritised” (Cabinet Office 2022:46). Yet both community and resilience are complex and contested terms and the promotion of community resilience far from straightforward (Coates 2015; Titz, Cannon & Kruger 2018).

The response to civil emergencies in the UK is reliant on a wide range of stakeholders, known as responders, whose responsibilities are outlined in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. The VCS is recognised as an important partner but it is challenging for the necessarily formal structures of responding organisations to engage with the more informal structures of community based organisations (Twigger-Ross et al. 2011) and such approaches can fail to provide the people-centred approach promised, instead perpetuating a top down transfer of information (Satizabal, Cornes & de Lourdes Melo Zurita 2022).

The VCS sector is challenging to define and extremely diverse (NCVO 2021). There are groups focussed on resilience such as Emergency Response Groups already working with local responders. Others will be contributing to community resilience in a wider sense, either in more obvious ways such as food banks or less directly through the creation of social networks. The Community Resilience Development Framework (Cabinet Office 2019) recognises the value of these wider resilience activities. The UK Government says it “will continue to deepen and strengthen its relationships with the VCS in England. The capabilities of the VCS will be better understood and integrated, as appropriate, strengthening resilience at local and national level in England”.

How though can this complex, evolving sector to be navigated? What role do groups see for themselves and how might effective, genuinely participatory relationships be created and maintained by already stretched local responders? In this rapidly evolving landscape what has been effective and why and how can this be replicated?

Students are expected to develop their own research question within the themes outlined above. Students would explore these issues through appropriate case studies of their own choosing. Some should be based in the UK but it may be helpful to compare these with locations in another country. The project would take a social science focus and would involve qualitative research methods. Quantitative methods may also be used alongside these if appropriate. Both the views of those within the VCS sector and those in the emergency/disaster sector will be central to the research. Candidates will need a strong social science background and knowledge of the key concepts of community, resilience and vulnerability. Ideally they will also have some knowledge of the VCS sector. Experience in qualitative methods is also required.