WRDTP Conference: WHC session; Research in a pandemic - community responses to COVID-19

Rob Macmillan & Sue Caton

A remarkable feature of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rapid growth of community-level responses to the crisis, including the establishment of local mutual-aid support groups, community fundraising and the mobilisation of volunteers. The immediate solidarity and consensus of being ‘all in this together’ has arguably begun to fragment in moves towards easing the lockdown and in the realisation that specific groups and communities are affected far more than others. But how might we carry out research in such circumstances?

Drawing from the early learning from a study examining community responses to COVID-19 in 25 neighbourhoods in England, this session has two aims:

• to explore and critically assess the concepts of community resilience and resourcefulness in the current crisis, and
• to reflect on the experiences, challenges and unexpected delight of research interaction during lockdown.