Resilience and food self-provisioning (FSP), terms that until recently were deployed primarily in the study of livelihoods in the Global South, are now attracting attention from alternative food scholarship in the Global North. Drawing on a large-scale survey conducted in the Czech Republic, this article investigates FSP as a social resilience-enhancing set of practices. In addition to the traditional reading of FSP as a passive, defensive and crisis-deflecting form of resilience, this article puts forward an alternative conceptualisation of resilience as a proactive, preventative, future-oriented and transformation-enabling capacity that runs counter to the tenets of neoliberalism.

This study contributes to research proposing the ethics of care framework as a way of imagining a food system that cares for Others. We expand this exploration to the everyday practice of home gardening and the related social relationships and material flows. This area complements current scholarship, which mostly focuses on food-related care as a form of activism driven by intentionality and knowledge about the effects of consumption choices. Combining a survey of a representative sample of the population and an in-depth qualitative study, our paper highlights the importance of inconspicuous but materially significant food self-provisioning and sharing practices as caring behaviors that do not rely on educational campaigns but draw on the desire to produce healthy food for human Others. Home grown food is distributed in the generalized reciprocity mode within wide food-sharing networks. The desire to produce healthy food further translates into the adoption of caring methods of cultivation that benefit non-human Others involved in the garden ecosystems.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the risk perceptions and activities of people to reduce impacts of disaster. Case study research has been conducted in village Podhradí nad Dyjí in the Dyje river basin in Czech Republic. Villagers from different age groups, experts, NGO members have been interviewed to understand people’s perceptions of flood risks and their actions. The research has found that changing flood insurance policy influenced people’s risk perception. There is also increasing self-dependency among people to reduce impacts of disaster. They come together to support each other and develop collectivities in managing disaster. People’s actions and willingness to participate in disaster management activities change with distance from the river bank. The village identified for the case study research has been affected by floods after implementation of the Crisis Management Act No. 240/2000 Coll. The findings of the study are influenced by geographical location of the municipality and cannot be generalised in the Czech Republic. The research has listed physical as well as socio-economic and cultural indicators of risk perception in the Czech Republic. These indicators and outcomes should help to assess and identify the gaps in reducing impacts of floods. The study has revealed the interconnection between physical, socio-economic, and cultural factors of risk perception after implementing the Crisis Management Act No. 240/2000 Coll. and changing strategies in disaster management in the Czech Republic.