“Hope is the Engine of Life”; “Hope Dies with the Person”: Analysis of Meaning Making in FAO-Supported North Caucasus Communities Using the “Sense and Sensibilities of Coherence” (SSOC) Methodology

Abstract

The previously adapted Sense of Coherence Scale, short form (SOC-13), was administered in Russian to 232 randomly selected consenting participants from three groups of FAO-supported farming-based intervention project beneficiaries in the North Caucasus. Analysis of SOC-13 subscales revealed that “meaningfulness” scores were significantly higher than “comprehensibility” and “manageability” scores for all three groups. Qualitative data gathered with the integrated Sense and Sensibilities of Coherence (SSOC) methodology illuminated the quantitative data. Hope was highlighted as the key component of meaning making, anchoring human resilience as measured by the SOC-13. Methodological and humanitarian policy questions for further research are outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• food security
• hope
• North Caucasus
• resilience
• Sense and Sensibilities of Coherence (SSOC)

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of an earlier version of this article for their constructive criticisms, Julius Jackson (FAO) for his insightful comments, the FAO field monitors who volunteered for fieldwork (Alikhan Alkhastov, Khamzat Akiyev, Suleyman Shakhbiyev, Lida Terkhoeva, Khava Albakova, and Magomed Terkhoev), and above all the study participants who agreed to engage in this pilot study. The U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program facilitated the initial meeting between the second author and the corresponding author.

Notes

The views expressed in this article do not represent the FAO or any other institution. They are the authors’ alone.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Parker

John Parker is a dual master's degree candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (Tufts University). His research focuses on food security and natural resources management, particularly the intersection of water, food, and livelihoods.

Laura Jane Tiberi

Laura Jane Tiberi holds a BA/MA degree in physiological sciences from the University of Oxford and a MMedSci in human nutrition for developing countries from the University of Sheffield. She has over 13 years of experience with the FAO Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division, where she has covered many regions including the North Caucasus, South-East Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, and North Africa.

Janetta Akhilgova

Janetta Akhilgova holds a master's degree in public administration and certificates of advanced studies in conflict resolution and leadership of international and nongovernmental organizations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. She has over a decade of experience working with local and international NGOs and the UN agencies in the field of humanitarian assistance and development in the North Caucasus region of Russia and in the United States.

Farrukh Toirov

Farrukh Toirov holds a master's degree in social sciences from Mahidol University in Thailand. He has over a decade of experience working with international organizations providing humanitarian and developmental assistance to vulnerable populations.

Astier M. Almedom

Astier M. Almedom is an applied anthropologist and behavioral scientist with a BA/MA degree in human sciences and a D.Phil from Oxford University. She is the founding director of the International Resilience Program of the Institute for Global Leadership, where the SSOC methodology was developed during her tenure as Professor of the Practice of humanitarian policy and global public health at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University).