Description
This article explores an emergent area in the security governance literature, namely, the topic of societal resilience. Resilience is currently at the forefront of a wide variety of national and supranational policy initiatives ranging from areas like twin transitions (climate and digital transformation) post-COVID-19 reconstructions, the robustness of democratic political systems, sustainability of local government structures, etc. Despite its many definitions, simply stated, resilience pertains to the ability of systems, organisations and/or actors to adapt to emergent circumstances (adversity) whilst maintaining function and a sense of (cultural) identity (c.f. Frigotto et al., 2022). The topic has, in recent years, attracted growing attention across the public sector, as a means of coping with increasingly complex and turbulent internal (sector) and external (societal) environments (Trondal et al., 2022).We approach a case of societal resilience form a perspective of national and societal security in Finland. Finland is a country in Northern Europe with more 1000 km of boarder with Russia. Its national security has been framed, since its independence, and especially after second world war, in the context of this geopolitical factor. Finland, unlike many other European countries, has based its national security to the universal conscription of male population and a maintenance of comparably high preparedness for (military) crises. Thus, Finland has created its own vocabulary for its “morale” and readiness for security threats. We are interested in the Finnish oxymoron concept of “yhteiskunnan henkinen kriisinsietokyky” which is directly translated as “Society’s Spiritual Crises Tolerance” and officially as “nation’s psychological resilience”. In this article we attempt to locate this policy concept both against its rather idiosyncratic historical origins in Finland, as well as among academic discourses in order to understand how it could be measured and operationalised.
The nations psychological resilience incorporates three themes. First it is a concept rooted with an idea of national defence or defence morale and conscription. Later it has been expanded to cover other parts of individual tolerance towards crises and exceptional circumstances. Thus, secondly, in a quasi-Hegelian vain it seems to imply that a nation can be grasped as a collective, or “spiritual” subject, thus connecting national security with wider ideas of Nordic welfare model, including inclusive social security and welfare policy, it’s related supportive networks, universal accessibility of educational institutions and the idea of security as a public good that enhances both political and social trust within a society. Third it encompasses the idea of that national resilience or crisis tolerance is especially built to face extraordinary circumstances and disruptions.
In this article our aim is to execute a conceptual mapping that locates the policy concept “Society’s Spiritual Crises Tolerance” among academic discourses in order to discuss how it could be measured and operationalised. The concept as such is an oxymoron because it is combining the collective subject of society with the individualistic concept of “the spiritual”. In addition, in the Finnish definition the idea of security (or actually the lack of security) is understood as a response to crises, while the understanding on national resilience is being equated to the word “tolerance”, this indicating a rather robust or status-.quo oriented reading of societal resilience (see Berling & Petersen, 2020). This oxymoron is understandable in the context of Nordic societal security. We will further illustrate on what is at stake in the recent proliferation of societal and national security discourses in terms of (political) theory. This harks also back to the question of what we mean when we discuss on the role of individual citizens’ “crisis tolerance”, “defence moral” or similar in the context of of nation’s psychological, mental or spiritual defence.
| Aikajakso | 7 huhtik. 2025 |
|---|---|
| Tapahtuman otsikko | IRSPM 2025, Bologna: Civic engagement and social capital in contemporary public administration: Facing the challenges of social equity and environmental sustainability |
| Tapahtuman tyyppi | Conference |
| Konferenssinumero | 28 |
| Sijainti | Bologna, ItaliaNäytä kartalla |
| Tunnustuksen arvo | International |