About this project

Baseline situation

Since March 2020, the Corona pandemic has led to sometimes very massive restrictions that affect us all. In particular, some groups of people, such as older people, people with pre-existing conditions or people in larger residential facilities – including people with disabilities – have come into focus because they are considered particularly vulnerable. Vulnerable means vulnerable and more susceptible to risks.

In order to protect vulnerable groups in our society and all of us from the negative health effects of Corona and to avoid overburdening the health system, the policy has enacted special protective measures and restrictions, starting in March 2020, and has continuously adapted them since then.

However, the question arises as to what determines whether someone is classified as vulnerable or feels vulnerable. In addition to health aspects, other influences can increase vulnerability or create it in the first place, e.g. isolation, heteronomy, social disadvantage or discrimination. In and after crisis situations, it is therefore essential to take a closer look at the effects of measures on precisely these groups that are classified as vulnerable by politics. Above all, the people affected should report on their experiences and their subjective experience of the crisis. This makes it possible to visualise risk factors, but perhaps also developments that were sometimes experienced positively by them.

We can assume that our society will be confronted with (new) crises again and again in the future, as the devastating war in Ukraine has just shown. Inclusion and participation should play an important role in this process in order to be able to take the interests and needs of all different social groups and individuals into account accordingly. For this reason, we are developing a model for future inclusive crisis monitoring within the framework of this research project.