TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19 and local community resilience in the Westfjords of Iceland
AU - Johannsdottir, Lara
AU - Cook, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Remote Arctic communities have often been depicted as being particularly vulnerable to the challenges of disasters, with their location and lack of infrastructure exacerbating risk. This study explores the characteristics of local resilience in the Arctic using the case study of the communities of the north-western Westfjords. A total of 42 semi-structured interviews were carried out with various community members, seeking to uncover the features of inbuilt resilience that contribute to successes and vulnerabilities. These were transcribed, coded, and categorised in relation to an integrated framework for assessing community resilience in disaster management, which groups topics via the themes of environmental, social, governance, economic, and infrastructure. All themes played a role in the success of local coping strategies, with easy access to the natural environment central to physical and mental well-being. Despite this, vulnerabilities of the community were evident, including insufficient local healthcare workers during a severe COVID-19 outbreak in a care home, the absence of a local quarantine hotel, and insufficient information in foreign languages for non-natives of Iceland. The general trend of following rules and expert advice was demonstrative of strong social capital, with locals trusting those in charge, nationally and locally, to manage the pandemic.
AB - Remote Arctic communities have often been depicted as being particularly vulnerable to the challenges of disasters, with their location and lack of infrastructure exacerbating risk. This study explores the characteristics of local resilience in the Arctic using the case study of the communities of the north-western Westfjords. A total of 42 semi-structured interviews were carried out with various community members, seeking to uncover the features of inbuilt resilience that contribute to successes and vulnerabilities. These were transcribed, coded, and categorised in relation to an integrated framework for assessing community resilience in disaster management, which groups topics via the themes of environmental, social, governance, economic, and infrastructure. All themes played a role in the success of local coping strategies, with easy access to the natural environment central to physical and mental well-being. Despite this, vulnerabilities of the community were evident, including insufficient local healthcare workers during a severe COVID-19 outbreak in a care home, the absence of a local quarantine hotel, and insufficient information in foreign languages for non-natives of Iceland. The general trend of following rules and expert advice was demonstrative of strong social capital, with locals trusting those in charge, nationally and locally, to manage the pandemic.
KW - community
KW - environment
KW - Pandemic
KW - remoteness
KW - resilience
KW - strengths
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184464781&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/22423982.2024.2311966
DO - 10.1080/22423982.2024.2311966
M3 - Article
C2 - 38324668
AN - SCOPUS:85184464781
SN - 1239-9736
VL - 83
JO - International Journal of Circumpolar Health
JF - International Journal of Circumpolar Health
IS - 1
M1 - 2311966
ER -