In an era marked by intensifying global risks – ranging from economic disruptions, demographic transitions, geopolitical tensions, and environmental shocks – the question of how societies withstand, adapt to, and transform in the face of systemic challenges has never been more urgent. Co-hosted by GARC, the Taiwan Social Resilience Research Center and the Department of Social Work at NTU, this series of international symposia brought together more than 150 participants, including interdisciplinary scholars from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden and the United States, to assess the current state of knowledge, and to explore new directions for building resilient societies.

The International Conference on Social Resilience featured the theme “New Direction to Social Resilience Measurement”. The presentations covered a comprehensive range of aspects: Wei-Yu Lin proposed a multi-level aging resilience framework tailored for the “super-aged societies”. Professor Chien-shih Huang shared findings from a two-wave online survey examining Taiwanese people’s perceptions of resilience to climate extremes and disasters. Representing his team, Professor Chun-Ming Hsu discussed approaches to measuring democratic resilience from the perspective of institutional strength. Professor Greg Chin-Shin Sheen and Yu-Heng Liu focused on developing a psychometric scale for measuring national security resilience, with Taiwan as the starting point.

We were also honored to invite Professor Rense Nieuwenhuis from the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University, Sweden to share his insights on inequalities in European resilience.

Beginning with a keynote speech by Professor Julia Henly from the University of Chicago on Policy Innovation Borne from Crisis – Advancing Job Quality and Financial Stability in the Child Care and Early Education Field, the International Symposium on Social Responses to Crisis and Change: Building Resilient Societies brought together interdisciplinary scholars to assess the current state of knowledge and explore new directions for building resilient societies.

The first session centered on policy and institutional responses to crises. Looking at Hong Kong’s experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Ben Cowling discussed the impact of school closures, while Professor Stefan Kühner analyzed quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of income protection versus job protection in mitigating food insecurity, poverty and unemployment. Turning the lens to South Asia, Professor Saravana Ravindran examined Bangladesh’s Early Childhood Stimulation Program to explore whether developing countries can leverage existing public service delivery platforms to provide early childhood services at scale. Continuing with the theme of childhood, Professor Kuan-Ming Chen drew on the case of cerebral palsy in Taiwan to analyze the impact of childhood disability on family, particularly in terms of labor participation, marriage, and fertility.

The second session focused on psychosocial and community responses to shocks. In the first presentation, Professor Paul Yip unpacked issues around internet gaming disorder among youth in Hong Kong. Professor Wan-Jung Hsieh explored posttraumatic growth outcomes among adult female survivors of sexual violence in Taiwan, while Professor Pei-Chun Ko discussed loneliness among older Australians before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Addressing post-widowhood resilience, Professor Dahye Kim investigated the case of South Korea to assess the effectiveness of intergenerational support from family and pension policies. In the final presentation, Professor Rainbow Ho proposed arts as a creative approach to responding to crises.

In addition to the fruitful dialogues fostered during the sessions, the event also featured a Poster Luncheon to facilitate further discussion and networking among participants.

Written by Ying-I Chen, translated by HANA Hsin-Wei CHENG