Resilience in times of turbulence

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte interviewed Professor Jane Gray of Maynooth University Department of Sociology on her research on resilience in times of crisis. We discussed two projects that she recently led which explored the ways in which families coped with the wake of the Great Financial Crisis and, in the case of Ireland, how the Family Income Supplement affected them. Topics discussed included differing understandings of poverty and hardship, the need to avoid placing all of the burden of overcoming poverty and other difficult challenges on individuals or individual households, the circumstances which make it particularly hard for families to 'bounce back' from adversity, the role of commons in helping people to meet their needs during times of crisis, and the importance of support that is broadly based, rather than narrowly targeted.