The Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO) has successfully completed the international research project ENDURE – Inequalities, Community Resilience, and New Governance Modalities in a Post-Pandemic World (https://www.endure-project.org). The project in Croatia was funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, with IRMO participating as one of 12 partners from Europe, North and South America, all part of the Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (TAP) consortium. The Lead PI of the consortium was dr. Mihai Varga from the Freie Universität Berlin, while the Croatian research team was led by Dr. Senada Šelo Šabić, with contributions from Dr. Emina Bužinkić, Nikica Kolar, and Ana Vučemilović-Grgić.
The project examined how COVID-19 pandemic measures affected society and politics – in Croatia, Europe, and globally. It paid particular attention to how state decisions shaped the relationship between governments and citizens. In Croatia, the pandemic was governed without officially declaring a state of emergency, instead operating through a “perpetual exception” that enabled increased concentration of power and the strengthening of ethno-nationalist politics. This approach disproportionately affected migrants, refugees, and minoritized communities, who were excluded from education, healthcare, and basic services.
The research also focused on other vulnerable groups: female teachers in minority schools, who bore the emotional and pedagogical burdens of the crisis with little support; people experiencing homelessness, who viewed the pandemic as a form of abandonment by the state; and youth, who, during research workshops organized through the project, expressed feelings of isolation and loss – but also discovered opportunities to question the accelerated pace of modern life.
In collaboration with the TAP consortium and the University of Wisconsin, the Croatian team also conducted national research on civil society organizations, the pandemic, and civic participation. The findings reveal deeper social inequalities in access to political visibility and power.
The project’s final events in Zagreb – the Community Resilience Lab and the conference “Organizing Community for All” – demonstrated that resilience in times of crisis does not come from institutions, but from everyday practices of solidarity and mutual aid. These included support networks among teachers, migrant-led initiatives, and youth creating their own spaces of belonging.
Building on insights from the ENDURE project, a new study is underway: “Civic Mobilization and the Limits of Governance: Social Responses to COVID-19 in Croatia”, which explores how citizens, through protests and spontaneous solidarity networks, created alternative forms of social action.
Ultimately, the ENDURE project has laid the groundwork for continued international collaboration, including a comparative study on civic mobilization with Polish researchers.
The full project report, titled “Uneven Governance, Unequal Impact: Reflections on the Social and Political Dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” is available in English here.
Related Publications:
Bužinkić, E., Foley, J., & Kerr, E. (2024). Crisis Governance, (De)Mobilisation and New Inequalities: The Legacy of COVID-19. Critical Sociology, 51(1), 105–114. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205241268370
Bužinkić, E., & Šelo Šabić, S. (2024). COVID-19 Emergency Governance in Croatia: The Case of Perpetual Exception and Securitized Disenfranchisement. Critical Sociology, 51(1), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205241259167
Kerr, E., Bužinkić, E. & Foley, J. (2025). The Organization of Irresponsibility?: Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe. Leiden: Brill (forthcoming)
Bužinkić, E. & Čolović, N. (under review). Precarity of Female Teachers in Minoritized Education in Croatia: Nationhood, Capitalism, and Care in COVID-19 (Post)Pandemic Worlds. In Karolak, Mrazowiecki & Varga (eds.), Global Essential Workers
Šelo Šabić, S. & Bužinkić, E. (in preparation). Civic Mobilization and the Limits of Governance: Social Responses to COVID-19 in Croatia