ABSTRACT
As one of the most significant human security issues in the Anthropocene, the COVID-19 pandemic exacted an unprecedented toll on people's lives and compounded insecurity on a global scale. Such complex and pervasive threats to human security, fueled by more frequent and intensifying pandemics, climate change, natural disasters, economic crises, and violent conflicts, require us to look beyond traditional top-down strategies for people-centered protection and learn from bottom-up methods for people's empowerment. By analyzing eight case studies of how vulnerable groups and populations in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan developed their own context-specific grassroots practices for filling in the gaps of human security left by the COVID-19 pandemic, we can identify lessons pertaining to resilient recovery and empowerment that may be creatively applied to cope with and overcome future crises. Moving forward, it is important to reflect on the criticality of advancing human security in guiding policies on protection and empowerment to support sustainable recovery and chart pathways for solidarity. It is also necessary to assess the nature of timely protection, with particular attention given to its conduciveness to providing opportunities for individuals to exercise active agency and self-determination. The lived experiences featured within these eight case studies of vulnerable communities throughout East Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic provide vital insight into the different types of normative environments that either impede or encourage empowerment.
