Crises as Catalysts for Change: The Foundations of the Resilient Societies Research Programme
In 2026, Humak University of Applied Sciences launched three research programmes: Thriving through Experiences, Transforming Communities, and Resilient Societies. This article examines how the Resilient Societies Research Programme responds to the challenges posed by polycrises at a time when societies are living in a liminal in-between state—where old ways of operating no longer function, but new ones have not yet fully reformed.
The Resilient Societies Research Programme develops society’s crisis resilience, community resilience, and recovery capacity from a multidisciplinary and participatory perspective. The programme builds the resources and competencies of individuals and communities that form the foundation for societal resilience. It seeks solutions that can strengthen mutual trust and faith in the future, particularly among communities. The underlying premise is that crises are not merely threats but potentially strengthening experiences. Sociologist Nassim Taleb uses the concept of antifragility to describe systems that do not simply withstand shocks but need them to develop. The resilient recovers; the antifragile improves. This perspective guides the research programme in identifying and strengthening those community structures capable of harnessing crises as catalysts for renewal.
Resilience as a Process
In this programme, resilience is understood as an ongoing process rather than a static end state or attribute. Crisis resilience is built through everyday practices, community activities, and cultural participation—it emerges from doing, not merely being. Individuals’ personal skills, resources, and capacity to face changes create the foundation for societal resilience. This process perspective emphasises that resilience requires active maintenance, continuous development, and renegotiation in changing circumstances.
The research programme work connects to a deeper challenge: how to create conditions for societal learning that does not merely respond to crises with ready-made solutions but is capable of transitioning from reactive preparedness toward systemic wisdom. Here, the role of culture, art, and creativity is central. The structures of art and culture are not additional resources but rather a foundation that sustains hope, while tools drawn from them create foresight methods that instil confidence in communities’ ability to dream and think differently.
The future is not something to be predicted but something to be made—and there are always multiple futures, not just one. Futures work involves actively imagining multiple possible futures together, creating navigation aids for uncertainty rather than attempting to anticipate a single probable future. The programme’s approach emphasises prosilience—anticipatory, bold, creative, and active action that strengthens individuals’ and communities’ capacity to face changes before crises emerge.
Practical activities build emotional resilience and concrete skills that enable, for example, processing climate emotions even in situations where nothing can be done about the change. This approach reflects a broader shift in sustainability research: as planetary boundaries have already been exceeded and climate change underlies most current crises, the focus has shifted from preventing and averting environmental crises to adapting to them.
In technology, we speak of dual-use when the same innovation has both civilian and military applications. In cultural resilience work, the benefits are manifold: through a single intervention, multiple things are simultaneously strengthened. This is not about two but countless multiplier effects that produce both redundancy and multiple benefits.
Redundancy emerges when a community creates several parallel ways to face crises—informal networks form alongside official channels, cultural forms of expression alongside traditional communication tools. Multiple benefits arise when a single intervention—such as a community restoration project—simultaneously strengthens ecology, social bonds, local economy, and mental wellbeing. Together, these create a safety net many times stronger than any single, narrowly defined measure.
Cultural Practices as Builders of Resilience
The research programme recognises culture and art as central components of society’s resilience and mental security of supply—not merely as added value but as primary infrastructure that creates the foundation for democracy, community, and mental preparedness. Both cultural institutions and other communities function as spaces of democracy that become particularly activated during crises and strengthen the social fabric of society in everyday life.
Methodologically, crises are not framed as enemies to be defeated but as complex systemic processes of change in which participatory arts-based practices serve as tools for generating new meanings. The idea is to sail creatively against the wind while maintaining direction, skilfully utilising collectively created navigation tools and serendipitously leveraging favourable currents that unexpectedly appear, even when they may not always align with the original plan.
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