Within the BASICS research consortium, three interconnected subprojects investigate the fundamental requirements for building resilient societies, what we refer to as the BASICS for Resilience. This research is grounded in a thorough examination of the adaptive, collaborative, and inclusive capacities of individuals, professionals, institutions, organizations, and enterprises in Dutch society. By analyzing both the institutional barriers that hinder resilience and the effective enablers that foster it, these subprojects contribute to a deeper understanding of how societies can better respond to challenges, crises, and social inequalities.
A key focus of the consortium is to study and strengthen the role and position of vulnerable groups by ensuring their voices, experiences, and aspirations are acknowledged in policymaking, institutional frameworks, and everyday social interactions. Each subproject, while distinct in its thematic focus, is committed to identifying practical strategies and interventions that enhance resilience at different societal levels.
Together, these three subprojects provide a multifaceted exploration of resilience, offering valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities that define contemporary Dutch society. Through interdisciplinary research, stakeholder engagement, and an emphasis on lived experiences, the BASICS consortium aims to inform policies and practices that foster more inclusive, collaborative, and adaptable societies.
Subprojects
Subproject 1 explores the societal inclusion of undocumented youth, investigating effective strategies, interventions, and collaborative efforts aimed at fostering their participation in society. It delves into the narratives, experiences, and subjectivities of undocumented youth, examining how these perspectives shape and influence processes of socio-political inclusion and transformation. By centering the lived experiences of undocumented youth, this subproject aims to highlight their agency while also identifying systemic barriers to their inclusion.
Subproject 2 examines the power dynamics and tensions that emerge in hybrid collaborations between social enterprises – which advocate for the social justice goals of vulnerable groups – and commercial enterprises. This subproject seeks to understand how conflicting interests and organizational logics can be reconciled to create sustainable partnerships that serve social objectives. By identifying best practices and strategies for overcoming institutional and ideological differences, this research offers insights into more impactful collaborations.
Subproject 3 investigates institutional resilience and organizational healing within nursing homes in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic exposed and exacerbated structural vulnerabilities within long-term care facilities, leaving lasting effects on staff, residents, and organizational structures. This subproject aims to understand how nursing homes can recover, adapt, and build resilience through organizational healing. By analyzing the long-term impacts of the crisis and identifying pathways for healing, this research contributes to the development of stronger, more adaptive care institutions.
Team
Eugenia Rosca is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen. Her research explores mechanisms, enablers and contingencies for social and environmental impact creation in global supply chains. More specifically, her research revolves around two main themes:
1) understanding how social enterprises manage their supply chains and operations to balance economic, social and environmental goals; and
2) exploring the role of non-traditional support actors (brokers / intermediaries, multi-stakeholder networks and meta-organizations) in enabling social impact creation in global supply chains.
Please click here to read her full biography.
Megan van der Vorst is an anthropologist specialized in organizational ethnography, who works as a research associate and PhD-candidate at the Department of Organization Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Her current research focuses on organizational trauma and healing in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, particularly its long-term impact on vulnerable groups like secondary school students and long term care facility workers. She examines how organizational structures and practices, especially those that create high-pressure environments, contribute to stress-related absenteeism and other challenges for employees.
Looking ahead, Megan’s PhD research will delve into the organizational science of work stress, aiming to help organizations identify and address the sources of stress within their structures. By doing so, she seeks to enable organizations to proactively support the well-being of their employees, ultimately enhancing overall organizational resilience.
Cheng-Yong is an associate professor of sustainable supply chain management at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen.
His research is focused on the extension of social and environmental standards along global supply chains, particularly on the social and environmental sustainability of emerging-country suppliers.
In this line of research, he has recently carried out research on how social enterprises engage their upstream and downstream partners to jointly develop sustainable and resilient supply chains.
Please click here to read his full biography.
Kees Boersma is professor of socio-technical innovation and societal resilience from the Faculty of Social Sciences (the Department of Organization Sciences) and the Faculty of Science (at the Science, Business & Innovation group) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
He is the co-founder of the Crisis Resilience Academy of the Institute for Societal Resilience. He is interested in the role of innovation, organizational change, and the use of (new) technologies. His focus is on crisis and disasters in relation to societal resilience and he studies new forms of crisis governance and management from the perspective of inter-organizational collaboration and community engagement.
Lianne (A.L.) Cremers is a visual and medical anthropologist, who works as an assistant professor at the Department of Organization Sciences, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Her research focuses on human responses to infectious diseases, notably tuberculosis and COVID-19. In her work, she aims to assess collaborative governance and sense-making processes around health crises and how these are deeply entangled with embodied experiences, societal resilience, and structural violence.
With her use of visual methods, she has made several ethnographic films about her research. Please click here to view her visual ethnographic work.
K Maeve Powlick is a researcher, educator, and consultant. She received her PhD in Radical Political Economy from UMass Amherst in 2011 and then left academia to spend the next ten years working with community-based organizations in communities of concentrated poverty in New York.
In this capacity, she has worked with more than 40 youth programs and schools and served on several state-wide policy bodies. She moved to the Netherlands in 2018 and, in 2023, completed the Research Masters in Societal Resilience at VU Amsterdam. Since re-engaging with academia in 2022, she has joined three research consortia: Amsterdam All-Inclusive, JEDI Now!, and BASICS Resilience.
Together with a team of Verwey-Jonker researchers, she is co-author on a forthcoming report for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science on understanding under-advising from an intersectional perspective and a forthcoming paper on building intergenerational collaborative spaces with undocumented youth.
Her research interests are on understanding the role of youth-adult partnerships and intergenerational collaboration in creating social change.
Cato Janssen is a visual and organizational anthropologist, who works at the Department of Organization Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Department of Political Science at the University of Antwerp.
Her research focuses on collectivity and the importance of participatory practices in engaging diverse stakeholders and fostering a resilient approach to adversity.
With her work and specifically her ethnographic films, she aims to improve the visibility of the emotional and social struggles faced by vulnerable groups in times of crisis.
Gabriel Briar is a research master’s student in Social Sciences for a Digital Society at VU Amsterdam. His research interests currently focus on the intersection of social inequalities, immigration experiences, and the bureaucratic procedures that shape them, with a particular interest in undocumented youth.
His work critically examines how legal status shapes access to opportunities and long-term life trajectories. In this line of research he has recently collaborated on a research project exploring the mental well-being impacts experienced by undocumented youth during the transition to higher education in the Netherlands.
Central to his research is the visibility of undocumented youth in spaces where they are often rendered invisible, highlighting their experiences, agency, and the systemic barriers they navigate.