Stories of survival and the importance of resilience in the face of increasing environmental, geopolitical, economic, social and health challenges

Abstract

Post the shock of COVID-19, the world continues to reel from new health challenges, more frequent and severe weather events - droughts in the northern hemisphere or floods in the southern hemisphere, geopolitical conflicts, energy crises, dramatic increases in cost-of-living pressures and their associated impacts including in housing and homelessness, food security issues and increasing rates of psychological distress. Australia’s National Science Agency, CSIRO (2022) notes that we can expect the next twenty years to be volatile marked by a combination of increasingly catastrophic weather events, geopolitical tensions, exacerbated health challenges associated with the post-pandemic world, high levels of psychological distress, increasing rates of chronic disease, an ageing population, a decline in trust in public institutions and explosion of artificial intelligence. In the context of existing, significant social inequalities, while we know that humans have a strong instinct to survive, we can also expect the divide to increase between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in the face of such challenges. This relates to differences in the ability of different nations to respond to and/or meet these challenges, but moreover, the differences within groups within societies that will continue to be exposed, in particular, the differential impacts on population groups already marginalised will be exacerbated. Accordingly, this issue of the Journal of Social Inclusion, highlights stories of resilience, the power of adaption, the disruption of existing power structures and imbalances, and other methods and advances in promoting social inclusion and inclusive societies.