Framework for Studying Societal Intelligence During Crises

Crisis seems to be a new normal in public administration – thus fostering the need for robust tools for policy-makers and society at large, including experts and citizens. Taking into account the primary focus of this project on COVID-19 as a case study, it also appears clear such a crisis cannot be adequately managed within the limits of so-called policy silos.

ROBUST addresses this challenge by posing that robust politics and robust policies are predicated on three independent variables, namely: interactivity between multiple levels of governance; hybridity in or mixes of governance, democracy, and law; and the use of negotiated societal intelligence.

Deliverables 5.1 focuses on societal intelligence, reviewing existing literature and highlighting the current state of the art in the academic field. The review also supports the successive steps of the broader research project, by firstly conceptualizing societal intelligence and then hypothesizing conditions for creating societal intelligence in times of crisis.