Fighting Poverty in Times of Crisis in Europe

The debt crisis sparked a growing interest in resilience as a means to address socioeconomic hardship in Europe. This research used qualitative secondary analysis of three emblematic cases to examine resilience processes in countries with diverse welfare regimes: Poland, Portugal and Ireland. The goal is to undertake a comparative analysis of the lived experiences of households in situations of hardship, while addressing the influence of sociopolitical frameworks on social agency. Under an economic recession and reduced social investment, findings show that resilience processes had only marginal positive effects, consisting mostly of survival practices to cope with increased levels of poverty and social risk, regardless of national setting. Instead of leading to sustained improvements in their lives, resilience processes increased the vulnerability of individuals. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors discuss why policy-makers remain attracted to resilience as a social response to crises and how it is shaping the European Union’s social policy.