Governing systemic crises in the 21st century: Learning from early Covid-19 responses in Europe

Researchers from the Geneva Transformative Governance Lab (GTGLab), based at GSI, receive SNF funding for a research entitled: Governing systemic crises in the 21st century: Learning from early Covid-19 responses in Europe.

Principal investigators are Dr. Didier Wernli, Director of the GTGLab and Prof. Nicolas Levrat, co-director of the GTGLab. Associate senior researchers are Prof. Karl Blanchet (CERAH, Unige), Prof. Didier Pittet (Unige & HUG) and Dr. Fabrizio Tediosi (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute).

Based on a complex systems approach, the research project aims to gain an understanding of what is affected during times of crisis, their interdependencies, and how we can improve the resilience of our governance systems.  The financial crisis of 2008, the Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2014-2015 and now COVID-19 are examples of systemic crises that can threaten modern societies. The impact of and response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic can be understood within a framework that account for the strengths and fragilities of different systems, i.e. their resilience.

The project will focus on initial impact of and responses to the current COVID-19 systemic crisis from an interdisciplinary perspective combining insights from public health, economics, and law. In particular, the project seeks to understand how different European countries cope, adapt, and transform in the face of systemic disruptions such as those caused by the rapid dissemination of COVID-19 across Europe.

SNF funding for this 18 months research is 280’000 CHF.