Livelihood Assessment

A central, concrete outcome of the research will comprise a livelihood framework for coping with sudden pandemic shocks and building a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable society. We intend to develop a livelihood framework to focus the findings and impacts of the pandemic on marginalised groups beyond tangible economic aspects by tracing and analysing their coping strategies and response mechanisms during pandemic times. This will serve to address long term/ post-pandemic social and economic impacts, to enhance resilience and to study the role of mobility in sustaining the livelihoods of marginalised groups as well as reducing their vulnerability and improving accessibility especially for future unprecedented pandemic outbreaks.
In addition, the livelihood analysis will be structured and interpreted in the preliminary livelihood framework developed by Carol Rakodi (1999;2002) as a conceptual framework. The livelihood concept serves to understand impacts beyond tangible economic aspects such as social and long-term impacts (e.g. closed schools). Our research does not just apply the livelihoods framework as developed by Rakodi, but we develop it further through our research by applying it to the study of the Ruhr Area and by focusing on the livelihood changes induced by changes in mobilities of marginalised urban groups specifically. Culminating in a livelihood framework, the research will bring together the findings from the criticality assessment, mobility biographies and accessibility mapping. These will be interpreted in the livelihood framework, as an analytical tool, to trace and analyse first the impact of COVID19 on the livelihoods and second to structure the coping strategies and the response mechanism of marginalised groups during pandemic times. With this mobilisation of the livelihoods concept, we aim to identify entry points to enhance their resilience which will lead to concrete policy recommendations. 
A livelihood assessment online workshop involving all consortium partners was conducted on 7^th Dec 2023 from 2pm to 4pm. The workshop discussed the necessary steps for carrying out the assessment and a common approach needed from every city to find a comparative thread for the livelihood framework. Discussions on the assessment will commence in 2024.