Science Speaks – Frontrunner 4
Crises rarely affect everyone equally, with vulnerable communities often bearing the greatest burden. At the same time, crises can amplify ongoing, everyday crises, such as poverty, poor health, insecure housing or marginalization. These overlapping effects show that pandemic and disaster preparedness is not only a technical challenge, but also a deeply human one.
In this episode of Science Speaks, PDPC Frontrunner 4 researchers Maha Habib, PingPing Song, Lotte Schrijver and Guusje Enneking explain how they are investigating the social side of resilience: how cities, neighbourhoods and communities can better prepare for and recover from future crises.
Guusje, PhD researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam, investigates the role of community centers, informal networks, public spaces and volunteer groups that sustain care during crises. Her research examines how these forms of collective support arise, the conditions under which they persist and who is included or excluded, with the aim of identifying ways to better support and strengthen these communities.
Where does heat build up in cities, and how do urban design and housing conditions influence who is most impacted by heat? This question is researched by Maha, PhD researcher at TU Delft. She found that certain housing types are more prone to overheating, but that heat stress is also shaped by social circumstances. Her findings will help shape more effective heat-response policies that can better protect people from extreme heat.
To study how the coronavirus moved between different regions in the Netherlands, PingPing, PhD researcher at Erasmus MC maps how municipalities are connected based on where people live and work. She investigates how the same intervention to limit viral spread can have very different effects depending on the region in which it is applied. This knowledge could be used for making tailored interventions that are both more effective and less disruptive.
Lotte, PhD researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Wageningen University & Research, studies resistance to crisis measures. She examines how misinformation and conspiracy theories interact with people’s deeper ideologies, values and concerns – such as autonomy, trust and the role of government. Lotte found that communication strategies are more effective if they align with these values, which is an important insight to help governments reach vulnerable groups more effectively during crises.
Ultimately, Frontrunner 4 shows that preparedness can only be effective when it aligns with how people actually live, move, organize and communicate. Resilience should be viewed as a shared societal challenge. The researchers argue that preparing for future pandemics and disasters requires attention not only to infrastructure and healthcare systems, but also to inequality, communication, participation and the everyday realities of urban life. Their work contributes to a broader vision of resilient cities where communities are better equipped to anticipate, respond to and recover from crises together.
Read more about Frontrunner 4 research and recent publications here!
This video was produced by the PDPC communications team, in collaboration with Schuyler Houser, Scientific Secretary of the PDPC.