Social Networks for Mutual Aid: Civil Society Responses to Covid-19

This monograph presents the Final Report of our team’s research project titled “Social Networks for Service Delivery and Humanitarian Response in Times of COVID-19.” It shares the narratives and insights about emergent agency in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which we gathered from various conversations with research partners in the course of six months. These narratives and insights, as well as our analysis, are conveyed here as case studies, which paint a picture of the variety of responses and responders to the health crisis. Each case study tries to capture in writing the passions and dreams that motivate our research partners’ actions. As researchers, we extend the conversation by listening intently and wringing out visions of a different normal condition after the pandemic. Jo Dionisio, our research project leader, integrates all of these in a thoughtful executive summary before each case study is presented one after the other. In a way, the publication of this monograph is an invitation for more public conversations and deliberations about building back better.