Health System Resilience, Othering & Context: Synthesis report of an interdisciplinary workshop

This working paper synthesises the specific understandings of the concept of Health System Resilience and related findings among the projects of the DFG-funded research unit PH-LENS “Refugee migration to Germany: a magnifying glass for broader public health challenges”. The synthesis is based on an interdisciplinary workshop, conducted in March 2022, by the NEXUS project as part of the Research Unit’s coordination measures. Different perspectives on Resilience, related to the individual, the community, the social welfare system, and the research projects themselves were identified and explored. Few projects used the term explicitly as analytical concept, but – despite controversies and the heterogeneity in conceptualising Resilience – a widely used theoretical framework, which distinguishes four capacities (Knowledge, Interdependency, Uncertainties, and Legitimacy) and three levels (Absorptive, Adaptive, and Transformative), turned out to be integrative. Due to the comprehensiveness of the four resilience capacities, all projects could relate to one or more of the four domains. This allowed to “contextualise” the local health systems beyond conventional building blocks by linking the system’s functions to social environments of refugees, such as migration-related challenges, the asylum system, housing conditions, or resource shortages.