The arts, culture, and humanities sector creates and fosters community resilience – a strength that has come to the fore in our post-pandemic world.
The arts, culture, and humanities sector plays a crucial role in discovering new pathways to 21st century living by creating and fostering community resilience (Photo: Hannah Busing/Unsplash)
Today’s global challenges are protracted, volatile, and ambiguous such that traditional single-track solutions no longer work. Gone are the days when a transport or medical problem, for example, can be solved by engineering or medics alone, and there’s no quick fix, leaving us with uncertain outcomes. No one remains unaffected by the harsh realities of the 21st Century, as we struggle to make sense of what can and should be done.
Set against this backdrop, the arts, culture, and humanities sector plays a crucial role in discovering new pathways to 21st century living. How? By creating and fostering community resilience – a strength emphasised by the University of Birmingham-led Humanities for Resilience Project. The arts, culture, and humanities sector generates transformative perspectives and shared visions to policy makers and across sectors.
This innovative project brings together NGOs, activists, human rights defenders, academics and policy makers from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. It began with workshops held in Lebanon, Thailand, Zambia, and Ethiopia, where we kick started a network of resilience creators and continued through social media and WhatsApp. We decentred European and North American knowledge production - generating connections across the global South.
This innovative project brings together NGOs, activists, human rights defenders, academics and policy makers from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. It began with workshops held in Lebanon, Thailand, Zambia, and Ethiopia, where we kick started a network of resilience creators and continued through social media and WhatsApp.
In Lebanon we saw how cultural heritage, food security and urban infrastructures make possible ‘ways of living’ – especially among migrants and young people. In Zambia we experienced how art, dance, theatre and technology give young people living on the margins of society, and people facing social stigma, the chance to do more than exist.
In Thailand we observed how public art, art production, and women’s migrant community networks empower and embolden ordinary lives with meaning and incomes. Together in Ethiopia, we explored the importance of shared identity - layered with multiple pathways of resilience across communities. In this workshop we also saw how hybrid networks with dynamic relationships sustained resilience activities across our project members.
Resilience demonstrated by our network goes beyond survival, and realises the transformative capacity of communities to live sustainably. Resilience living is sustainable living, not confined to ‘post-disaster’ times, it happens every day, and is built into our communities.
There are, of course challenges to sustaining resilience in the sector with people’s limited ability to instigate transformational change often leading to burnout. Short-term funding and NGO competition create barriers to sustaining impactful projects.
We found our own challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic and economic recessions. As members of the network became chronically ill and other members suffered loss of income, we collectively felt the challenge of sustaining resilience. We were forced to revise ambitions and goals as weakened health and funding streams affected activities.
Our project came up with several recommendations for policy action:
The Humanities for Resilience Project demonstrates that the arts, culture, and humanities sector embodies resilience. In an age of scarcity, isolation, and a politics of fear, the arts, culture, and humanities have never been needed more. Addressing challenges identified and implementing recommended policy actions will mean that policymakers can strengthen the sector's capacity to contribute to community resilience effectively and harness opportunities created by those global challenges.
Katherine Brown, Sara Fregonese, Shannon Oates, Ceri Chillier - University of Birmingham
Professor of Religion, Gender and Global Security
Academic profile of Professor Katherine Brown, Professor of Religion, Gender and Global Security at the University of Birmingham
Associate Professor of Political Geography
Dr Sara Fregonese, Birmingham Fellow, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, researching political and urban geography and the impact of geopolitics and security on urban life
