LOCRES dissemination

  • “Democracy, Security and Resilience” Panel, Bucharest Forum 2021, 9-10 December 2021, Palace of Parliament, Bucharest, Romania, Hybrid Event.

Presentation of the LOCRES project as part of the Bucharest Forum 2021 panel on “Democracy, Security and Resilience”. The panel covered the societal developments in the trans-Atlantic space over the past few years that have fueled movements and schools of thought that go against democratic principles and values, both philosophically and policy wise.

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  • “Public Opinion, Trust and Resilience” Roundtable Event, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, October 26-27, 2021, Online.

Dedicated presentation of the LOCRES preliminary results, covering the conceptual framing and comprehensive mapping of existent approaches from the IOs and the academic literature. Specific dissemination of the focus groups discussions and the experts’ framing of societal resilience.  

Policy discussion on how better cooperation between cities and local civil society could strengthen democratic resilience in Central and Eastern Europe. During the presentation of a policy paper on local democratic resilience in CEE, the LOCRES ambition and potential contribution was highlighted.

LOCRES conceptual framing and preliminary results were highlighted in the context of the academic debate on institutional resilience during the COVID-19 first year of crisis across Europe.

  • Launch event of the Democratic Resilience Index, Global Focus, June 29th 2021, Online

Within the launch event of the Democratic Resilience Index, a discussion on the need for a local level assessment of democratic resilience was developed, highlighting the potential contribution of LOCRES to the existent measurement tools.

LOCRES relevance and preliminary mapping of existent conceptualisations of resilience within international organisations (IOs) were presented within a dedicated panel “Building resilience in a pandemic and infodemic environment. The struggle for credibility”, as part of the Aspen Institute Romania/GMF Atlantic – Black Sea Security Forum event organized in partnership with the NATO Public Diplomacy Division.

• Aspen Dialogues: Disinformation, Societal Resilience and COVID-19, Friday 17 December

The event was organized online by the Aspen Institute Romania, in partnership with the Eurocomunicare Association, under the aegis of the Aspen Dialogues series of webinars. Survey data for Romania and research outputs from LOCRES were presented.

Europe and America have long faced the threat of disinformation and had to face its impact in their societies. Trust and social capital have long been declining. But, fake news and disinformation have accentuated these dangerous trends, thus enhancing our collective vulnerabilities. Social media channels and new technologies have lowered geographical divides, and yet they also contributed to social polarisation in local communities. Disinformation can easily and cheaply be used to persuade the public at an accelerated and dangerous pace as digital platforms might be used for sharing of false information. The COVID-19 pandemics made things more stringent than ever before, as national vaccination campaigns have been countered by state-sponsored disinformation campaigns. Feelings of fear or sadness in the population are explored maliciously to seed skepticism and animosity within the public and between citizens and their elected officials. Societal resilience is thus put to the test harder than ever before. This webinar aims to discuss these interdependencies between current and older threats and the best ways to diagnose them and effectively counter them in our societies today.

The webinar format was a moderated discussion between panelists, followed by a Q&A session based on questions received from participants (representatives of academia and the private sector, public officials, civil society leaders focused on fostering research).