The book Resilient Society. Between Powerlessness and Tyranny by philosopher Alice Koubová and literary documentary filmmaker Barbara Baronová deals with the topic of social resilience through a series of interviews with personalities of contemporary Czech society such as Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková, Simona Bagarová, Anna Kárníková, Eva Fraňková, Adriana Světlíková, Zuzana Čepelíková, Daniela Vodáčková, Benedikt Vangeli, Pavla Holcová, Lukáš Houdek, Alica Sigmund Heráková, Saša Uhlová, Kateřina Šimáčková, Pavel Houdek and Jiří Šedivý.
The introduction by Alice Koubová presents the basic context of the topic of social resilience - the complexity of the concept of resilience, its theoretical background, academic sources, as well as the motivation for the selection of voices for this publication.
In fourteen interviews with fifteen male and female respondents, the authors of the publication collectively raise the topics of crisis, social change, systemic supports, coping strategies, social ties, values or culture with respect to the theme of resilience, within the fields of psychology, economics, law, education, defence, media, care, ecology, social work, minority relations, misinformation, culture, gender or hate speech, which are areas of interest for the interviewees.
Based on the responses, which are primarily based on their own lived experience and the challenges faced by the individuals included in this project, key aspects of resilience emerge from the interviews. In the context of the polycrisis of the contemporary world, it becomes clear how highly relevant the topic of resilience is within Czech society.
The final chapter of the book presents an analysis of the interviews conducted, which shows that the ability to navigate through unexpectedly adverse situations relies significantly on mental social settings, habitual attitudes and the culture of relationships. The way we live our collective relationships is based on our understanding of what power, strength, weakness, burden, fear, help, entitlement, happiness and need are, whether we perceive each other as threats and obstacles, or whether we have a certain degree of experience saturation in our 'social body' that we can rely on those around us. This is then directly reflected in how our institutions function and how our public life, or system, is organised. Other themes that Alice Koub summarises in the final chapter are punitive culture, social connectedness, the story we tell about ourselves as a society, basic safety for managing danger, caring professions or respectful management of people.
The photographs in the book were taken by Dita Pepe and the graphic designer is Stepan Malovec.