The emergence and impact of community resilience initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic: an exploration study from a Chinese urban community

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 provides a window of opportunity for observing community resilience initiatives. Based on the Community Resilience Initiative Framework, we adopt a qualitative approach to investigate a Chinese urban community, focusing on community initiatives with regard to fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. The findings highlight several primary factors, including the agency of community actors, the grid management system, and the utilisation of WeChat groups.The collective experience of fighting against COVID-19 has boosted community interaction, understanding and trust, and has further promoted the capacity of problem solving in the community, and thus established community self-organisation. These findings have important implications for community development in the post-epidemic era.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• community resilience
• community agency
• grid system
• WeChat group

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The authors claim that this research project is unfunded.

Notes on contributors

Zhifeng He

Zhifeng He, Associate Professor, PhD. He is a associate professor in Research Center for Health and Social Policy at Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai519087, China. He is also a chairman of the board of directors in Jingshi Social Work Center at Yangjiang City. His research interests cover government purchase of social work service, volunteering and social welfare policy.

Yu Xiang

Yu Xiang, Lecturer. He is a lecturer in Research Center for Health and Social Policy at Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai519087, China. His research interests cover community development, non-profit organisations and social welfare policy.

Congpeng Qi

Congpeng Qi, Lecturer, PhD. He is a lecturer of the School of Politics and Public Administration at Shandong Youth University of Political Science,China. His research interests cover volunteering and community governance.

Xiaohe Liu

Xiaohe Liu, Research Assistant. She is a research assistant in Research Center for Health and Social Policy at Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai519087, China. After receiving her MSc degree in Health Economics and Decision Science at University College London, she has focused on public health and social medicine. Her research interests include social security, social work and public health administration.

Sisi Li

Sisi Li, MSW Student. She is a full-time master student of the School of Sociology and Population, Renmin University of China. Research interests: Social policy.