Social and Spatial Factors behind Societal Resilience in Times of Complex Risks: Towards Integrative Model in Survey Research

Societal resilience becomes increasingly important in the face of turbulent times of increasing planetary pressures, social and geopolitical tensions and risks. Societal resilience is the ability of society to resist and recover from major shocks or adapt to crises and unexpected events.

This presentation proposes an integration of different levels of factors for the research of societal resilience using survey research

The societal resilience, as the dependent variable, is measured using societal resilience index (8 items, Bodas, 2022). The explanatory model includes (1) external factors, like risk perception (open questions on the highest risk in the country and a list of 21 risks); trust in institutions and their abilities to efficiently react in a case of crisis (international, national, municipal, non-governmental, local); perception of preparedness (national, municipal and individual); information sources, (2) community level factors, like place attachment, social trust and social networks; and (3) individual factors, like individual psychological resilience (measured by CR-RISC-25 scale); personal preparedness level; individual knowledge, socio-demographic characteristics, subjective health evaluation.

The survey questionnaire for the measurement of societal resilience was constructed for the representative survey in Lithuania, and the data was collected in 2024. The questionnaire includes more than 100 items, and allows the validation of different indexes measuring the factors influencing societal resilience and investigating their explanatory power.

This presentation is based on the project „Socio-spatial determinants of societal vulnerability and resilience to crises and strengthening the crisis response potential of communities“ (SERENITY), funded by the Research Council of Lithuania, no. S-VIS-23-21