Attempto 02/2023 Interview: Making people strong for crisis

attempto!: Mr. Krüger, what does “resilience” mean?

Marco Krüger: Basically, a kind of resistance or adaptability. The idea is that we don’t know what will happen in the future. Classic crisis concepts work with a threat scenario such as earthquake, forest fire or war. The resilience approach aims to create resources so that we are adaptable to as many scenarios as possible.

What interests you as an ethicist about resilience?

MK: From the ethical perspective of security, I investigate how resilience is a viable concept for our society. In politics, resilience is now considered a panacea, sometimes with the call to “become resilient”. Critical voices from social science and psychological discourse say that resilience should not only be a demand, but must be actively promoted.

How can resilience be actively promoted?

MK: Among other things, through good social policy. Poverty, for example, is a classic vulnerability factor. Those who are poor don’t have the material resources to prepare for challenges.

It is also important to keep an eye on society as a network when making political decisions. If one area becomes vulnerable, this has consequences for others. If, for example, state childcare fails, parents can work less, which in turn affects employers and – depending on the profession – society as a whole. We saw this during the pandemic but are currently experiencing it again, given by the shortage of staff in daycare centers. There is no point in demanding resilience exclusively from the individual.

What do you mean?

MK: Take the shopping list of the Federal Office for Civil Protection: To get through a crisis for up to 10 days, it recommends to stockpile 20 liters of water and several kilos of food per person alone. Not everyone can afford this or has enough space. Such state recommendations ignore the reality of life for many. Putting up hurdles does not serve societal resilience.

What would make sense instead?

MK: To create the conditions for people to become resilient. Recommendations should be underpinned with capabilities here. People must be able to afford to implement measures on the one hand and recognize them as meaningful for themselves on the other. It’s important to dock onto people’s everyday lives and to understand them as experts in their own lives. In this respect, resilience policies must be communicated ideally and be underpinned materially by available resources.

In the end, everyone can contribute, resilience is not just a state task, right?

MK. In any case, a lot of people do. The German civil protection system is mainly supported by volunteers. State structures must also enable initiative. Especially after disasters, many people help on their own, let’s think of the pictures from the Ahr valley in summer 2021. This is great, but requires different forms of management from state authorities.

Ideally, we enable people to become active themselves. This does not relieve the state of its protective function. However, if we understand resilience as a concept of empowerment, and not as a delegation of responsibility, this can contribute to promoting and integrating societal potential, rather than just implementing top-down processes. I think that would be a nice rethink.