Oral History and Social Resilience in Hard Times

Compiled by Dr. Abolfazl Hasanabadi
Translated by Fazel Shirzad

2026-6-16

Abstract

Hard times (including war, genocide, forced displacement, pandemics, structural violence, floods, and earthquakes) are often accompanied by the accumulation of difficult memories that remain untold due to fear, psychological pressure, social deprivation, or the absence of an appropriate context for expression. As a dialogic method grounded in the narrator’s agency, oral history serves unique functions in addressing such crises. Responses to these crises are not necessarily confined to painful memories; rather, beneath their harsh surface often lie profound layers of micro-identities that enhance a society’s capacity for resistance and resilience.

This article examines the role of oral history in times of hardship, the factors influencing its effectiveness, and its impact on social resilience. The findings indicate that, provided ethical principles are observed, oral history can restore lost voices to individuals and communities and thereby offer one of the most powerful tools for strengthening social resilience during crises. By documenting untold experiences, oral history can contribute to the healing of collective memory, help supplement official records, facilitate the intergenerational transmission of memories, and support the restoration of human dignity through the acts of listening and recording.

Keywords: Oral History; Hard Times; Social Resilience; Trauma

Introduction

Social resilience, defined as the capacity of communities to withstand sudden shocks (such as war, natural disasters, and economic crises) without the collapse of their collective identity, and to rebuild social relationships and systems of meaning, has emerged over the past two decades as one of the central concepts in crisis studies for researchers across different regions of the world. Interest in identifying the factors that strengthen or weaken social resilience dates back several decades. Governments, in particular, have become increasingly concerned with understanding how individual resilience in the face of crises can be transformed into social resilience in order to prevent societal breakdown. Ultimately, this has led to fundamental questions: Are societies’ capacities for resilience and their responses to crises the same in all circumstances? Can the characteristics of resilience vary depending on the nature of the crisis?

This article examines the role of oral history in times of hardship. One of the most significant functions of oral history is its ability to convey the hidden layers of desires, emotions, and experiences that are often difficult to capture within the rigid framework of written records. Rather than focusing on statistics and quantitative data, oral history centers on the firsthand narratives of individuals who have lived through crises. By uncovering emotional and psychological dimensions, demonstrating the diversity of experiences, and documenting resistance, shame, solidarity, and violence side by side, oral history contributes to identifying the factors that shape resilience in times of crisis.

The Role of Oral History in Social Resilience during Difficult Times

The adverse consequences of events such as war are not confined solely to those who directly witness them. Such traumatic experiences remain embedded in the collective memory of a nation for many years and contribute to the formation of its system of meanings and interpretations. The effects of these events reverberate through multiple generations within a society. Through various mechanisms (many of which remain subjects of ongoing research) these experiences are transmitted to subsequent generations. In some cases, such as genocide, mass killings, and war, these effects are particularly profound. Social resilience refers to the capacity of a society to endure sudden shocks (including war, floods, earthquakes, pandemics, genocide, and displacement) without the disintegration of its collective identity, and subsequently to reconstruct social relationships and systems of meaning. As a fundamental pillar of urban and societal sustainability, social resilience encompasses the ability of local communities to cope with, adapt to, and recover from environmental and social crises. The concept is commonly associated with factors such as cultural cohesion, social trust, social capital, civic participation, and collective decision-making capacity (Abbasial et al., 2021).

The importance of social resilience stems from a simple reality: what ultimately saves a society during times of crisis is not merely military equipment, government funding, or physical infrastructure. Rather, it is the thread that binds members of a community together (trust, solidarity, and the capacity for collective action).

Social resilience is not merely an “optimistic” concept concerned with solidarity during crises; it can also serve as a powerful analytical framework for understanding instability. In other words, resilience is not a fixed characteristic of a society. Rather, it fluctuates and may be weakened by a variety of political, economic, and social factors (Cheshmeh Sardeh et al., 2025: 57–61). The relationship between an individual’s personal memories, collective narratives, and the way people perceive themselves and the event in question can significantly shape both the truth and the reality of the issue. Human beings remain continuously engaged with their past. The past is not a dead time; past events constantly influence people’s thoughts and perceptions, and this phenomenon becomes even more pronounced in relation to difficult and traumatic memories.

The central question, therefore, is: What role can oral history play in enhancing social resilience during difficult times? What characteristics of oral history contribute to empowering communities and strengthening social resilience? Why is the implementation of oral history projects particularly important during periods of severe crisis? A defining feature of crises is that they affect all segments of society, albeit to varying degrees. Yet do all those affected have an equal opportunity to be seen and documented? Are all voices heard? This question becomes especially important when personal accounts may conflict with official interpretations of events or when certain experiences become a source of trauma for segments of society.

Some subjects in oral history have a profound impact on personal memory because memory is not a passive repository of facts; rather, it is an active process of meaning-making (Portelli, 1981: 96). Memory functions as a repository of information about an individual’s life, organized and shaped through recollection and used as a representation of that life. Thompson argues that oral history provides “an opportunity for those who are less visible within society to be seen and heard within their social context” (Thompson, 1988: 2–3).

Oral history can offer not only a representation and interpretation of past events but also a powerful exploration of the human condition. Ricatti argues that any interpretation of tragic historical events must be connected to broader and deeper relationships with other events and human narratives, linking them to the emotions, experiences, and stories shared by others, often across distant places and times (Ricatti, 2019: 57). Such connections help protect societies from sinking into collective despair and trauma.

Trauma is generally defined as an individual’s response to an event or series of events that overwhelms their capacity to cope, generating intense feelings of fear, helplessness, and terror, and often leading to social invisibility and withdrawal. It is important to note, however, that while all traumatic experiences are painful, not all painful experiences are traumatic (Field, 2012: 153). Oral history can contribute to the healing of the collective memory of communities that have been wounded by catastrophe. The concept of “appeasing the past” refers to a process through which listening to and recording personal narratives creates connections among truth, healing, and reconciliation. Through oral history, it becomes possible to personalize narratives of crisis and examine their impact on individuals across different societies, locations, and generations. Interviews enable us to better analyze the diverse perspectives expressed by participants, as well as the relationships between human experiences and the non-human elements associated with disasters (Regina Alves, 2023: 190).

Oral history offers an opportunity to create and present experiences of resistance or coping during difficult times that individuals may encounter and, for various reasons, may not wish to disclose. It also allows for the assessment of an individual’s reactions in different situations. Anna Green believes that the ways in which oral history narrators recall or understand events cannot be reduced to social structures, cultural frameworks, or psychological patterns, although these can be useful (Field, 2012:157).

Given this, by documenting the lived experiences of humans during crises, it is possible to transmit collective memory to future generations through the discovery of people’s emotional and psychological layers and by showcasing the diversity of experiences, while simultaneously documenting resistance and solidarity. This process not only informs the present but also prevents the historical oblivion of realities. Furthermore, benefits such as understanding crises through personal experience, documenting ethnic and racial differences in crisis perception, restoring agency and human dignity to survivors, accessing “psychological truths” beyond objective reality, providing an ethical intersubjective space for narration, fostering empathy and mutual understanding, and ultimately creating unofficial historical resources that complement official documents for understanding events beyond the official and dominant narrative, can be considered advantages of oral history. Oral history, provided ethical principles are adhered to, can be one of the most powerful tools for strengthening social resilience in crises by restoring the lost voice to individuals and communities, thereby having a profound and multi-layered impact on social resilience. However, this impact is neither automatic, nor without challenges, nor always positive. Oral history revitalizes a sense of agency by returning the right of narration to the individual. The individual understands that their life story belongs to them and that they can tell it in their own way. This sense of control is the foundation of psychosocial resilience. A society with multiple narratives (not just the official voice) is more resilient to identity crises because it accommodates different versions of reality within itself, preventing psychosocial ruptures.

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