Polycentric crisis response and societal resilience: how local communities address internal displacement in Ukraine due to the Russian full-scale invasion

Abstract

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 subjected local communities (hromadas) to multiple war-related crises. This paper examines how hromadas, formed during the decentralization reforms from 2015 to 2020, cope with the internal displacement crisis caused by the Russian invasion. It relies on a wartime survey of 241 Ukrainian local self-government authorities (LSGs), as well as in-depth interviews and focus groups with LSG and civil society representatives, conducted between August 2022 and June 2023 regarding their practices in addressing the numerous issues faced by individuals and communities due to forced displacement. The study contributes to the crisis coordination literature by theorizing and mapping the three mechanisms that have enabled local communities to adapt and respond effectively: the circulation of local knowledge, resource mobilization, and experimentation and innovation. Isolating these three mechanisms, typically associated with polycentricity in public choice scholarship, also provides additional arguments for polycentric and multi-level institutions as enablers for societal resilience.