Resilient Communities of Central Eurasia: Responding to Change, Complexity and the Visions of The Good LifeLink opens in a new window
Edited By Elena Korosteleva and Irina Petrova

This book argues for the need to rethink governance through the lens of 'resilience as self-governance'. Building on complexity-thinking, it contends that in the context of change and complex life, challenges are most efficiently dealt with, at the source, 'locally', to make 'the global' more responsive and sustainable.

Resilience as self-governance is advanced as an overriding framework to explore its constitutive elements - identity, ‘good life’, local coping strategies and support infrastructures - which, when mobilized, can turn communities into ‘peoplehood’ in the face of adversity. It is argued that these communities of relations, self-organised and self-aware of their worth, is what makes them so resilient to crises, and what helps them to transform with change; and how they should be governed today. Central Eurasia, spanning from Belarus in the west, to Azerbaijan in the south and Kyrgyzstan in the east, provides fertile grounds for exploring how resilience works in practice in times of complex change. By immersing into centuries-long traditions and philosophy, local experiences of survival, and visions for change, this book shows that governability at any level requires a substantive 'local' input to make 'the global' more enduring and resilient in a complex adaptive world.

This book will be of great value to students and scholars in the fields of Politics including Eurasian politics and the various aspects of Governance. Most of the chapters in this book were published as a special issue of Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

ISBN 9781032290942

Published by
21 March 2023 by Routledge.

On 10th March 2023, Year 3 and Year 4 students of the St Osburg's RC Primary School, Coventry visited the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, where a little 'Dippy Returns' surprise workshop awaited them, and they dipped between the three stages educate, empower and enable.
IGSD colleagues lead a session to highlight the links between dinosaurs, climate and birds! We will also be taking part in the Earth Day celebrations on 22nd April at The Herbert and will be joined by colleagues from School for Cross Faculty Studies.Link opens in a new window to celebrate The Wild Escape. For more information about the day and activities please visit The HerbertLink opens in a new window.

The forum aimed to examine new challenges faced by the world and the ODA countries of Central Eurasia in particular, to seek policy solutions to this unjust, fragile and geo-politically unstable world of today. It explored connections of resilience as self-governance, central to the survival and transformation of local communities/societies, with the resilience as diversity-governance of Global International Society (GIS), to understand how it works especially in times of crises (war), and increasing complexity. The ultimate goal is to see if a more sustainable and ontologically secure world of tomorrow is possible for the region, and if yes, what kind of governance is needed to get there (Korosteleva & Flockhart 2020; Korosteleva & Petrova 2021; Flockhart & Paikin 2022).

Today we are facing a complex combination of crises which contribute and reinforce each other. Indicators of insecurity are rising, while indicators of environmental integrity are sinking. A complexity-thinking planetary approach to sustainable development through the lens of resilience, presents promising avenues for seeking solutions to future development. The forum brought together different views and practices, to conjointly (re-)discover ways to more sustainable and resilient communities of relations on local, regional and global levels.

Please see website for more details on the book launch, policy recommendations, capture of the discussions and infographics to support the outcomes of the Forum.
COMPASS+ (warwick.ac.uk)

This is an interview provided by Prof. Jon CoaffeeLink opens in a new window and IGSD's Dr. Vangelis PitidisLink opens in a new window from the University of Warwick, leaders of the EU H2020-funded proJECT RiskPACC Work Package 2 '“Engaging Citizens to expand understandings of risks, vulnerabilities and data collection opportunities”. In this interview WP2 leaders present the outcomes of the work undertaken in the contex of their Work Package, but also express some general ideas regarind the overall contribution of Warwick University in the Project.