Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Relationships are everything: The underpinnings of grassroots community action in the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto
Abstract Most government emergency/pandemic response plans feature top-down decision making and communication strategies and a focus on ‘hard’ (physical) infrastructure. There is nothing about the importance of the ideas and communications originating from communities, the social infrastructure that supports their impact locally and their contribution to the central administration. In this study, we found that the ‘soft’ (social) infrastructure within communities and between communities and formal institutions is key to an inclusive and more equitable response to large-scale crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Grassroots leaders in six Toronto neighbourhoods were interviewed between the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto about what helped or hindered community action. Three themes emerged: (1) Grassroots leaders and community organizations were able to act as key connection points in a two-way flow of information and resources with residents and service providers; (2) Grassroots leaders and groups were challenged to engage in this work in a sustained capacity without adequate resourcing; and (3) there was a disconnect between community-centred grassroots approaches and the City's emergency response. We conclude that there needs to be pre-disaster investment in community level planning and preparation that fosters two-way connections between all municipal emergency/disaster and pandemic preparedness plans and community-centred organizations and grassroots leaders working in marginalized communities.
Highlights Social infrastructure is as important as physical infrastructure in emergency response. Emerging critical realist method identifies relational social fabric of communities. When social infrastructure exists pre-pandemic, grassroots can be part of solutions. Two-way connections needed between communities and municipal emergency administration. Investment in supporting a connected community needed in emergency response plans.
Relationships are everything: The underpinnings of grassroots community action in the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto
Abstract Most government emergency/pandemic response plans feature top-down decision making and communication strategies and a focus on ‘hard’ (physical) infrastructure. There is nothing about the importance of the ideas and communications originating from communities, the social infrastructure that supports their impact locally and their contribution to the central administration. In this study, we found that the ‘soft’ (social) infrastructure within communities and between communities and formal institutions is key to an inclusive and more equitable response to large-scale crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Grassroots leaders in six Toronto neighbourhoods were interviewed between the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto about what helped or hindered community action. Three themes emerged: (1) Grassroots leaders and community organizations were able to act as key connection points in a two-way flow of information and resources with residents and service providers; (2) Grassroots leaders and groups were challenged to engage in this work in a sustained capacity without adequate resourcing; and (3) there was a disconnect between community-centred grassroots approaches and the City's emergency response. We conclude that there needs to be pre-disaster investment in community level planning and preparation that fosters two-way connections between all municipal emergency/disaster and pandemic preparedness plans and community-centred organizations and grassroots leaders working in marginalized communities.
Highlights Social infrastructure is as important as physical infrastructure in emergency response. Emerging critical realist method identifies relational social fabric of communities. When social infrastructure exists pre-pandemic, grassroots can be part of solutions. Two-way connections needed between communities and municipal emergency administration. Investment in supporting a connected community needed in emergency response plans.
Relationships are everything: The underpinnings of grassroots community action in the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto
Jackson, Suzanne F. (Autor:in) / Morgan, Garrett T. (Autor:in) / Gloger, Anne (Autor:in) / Luca, Sarah (Autor:in) / Cerda, Ewa (Autor:in) / Poland, Blake (Autor:in)
Cities ; 134
17.12.2022
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Grassroots Cooperation During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland
| Taylor & Francis Verlag | 2020
Women Plan Toronto: Grassroots Participation in Re-Shaping the City
| British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998