De Noodzaak

From research
to imagination

De Noodzaak is inspired by SCOOP, a research consortium of five Dutch universities that studies how societies remain resilient through sustainable cooperation. Bringing together sociologists, psychologists, historians, philosophers, public administration scholars, and methodologists, SCOOP is distinguished by its interdisciplinary approach.

SCOOP invited independent artists Maartje de Goede and Quita Felix to translate its research into two art installations. Maartje drew inspiration from the work of Lisa Willemsen on contagious cooperation: the way cooperation can spread rapidly from person to person during times of crisis. This research challenges the dominant narrative around emergency preparedness, in which citizens are primarily addressed as self-reliant individuals: make sure your emergency kit is complete, and you'll be fine. Willemsen's work—and the many studies it builds upon—suggests something quite different. In moments of acute crisis, people rarely respond by panicking or looking out only for themselves. Instead, they spontaneously begin caring for one another, organising from the ground up, and improvising together.

De Noodzaak begins from this tension: moving beyond individual self-reliance towards collective resilience. Caring for one another during a crisis does not start when disaster strikes; it starts long before, by knowing your neighbours and building relationships. Across the Netherlands, community initiatives are already doing exactly that. They bring together people who might otherwise never meet, across differences in age, background, and lived experience. This work is not only valuable when a crisis occurs—it may even help prevent one. It also challenges the idea that people are fundamentally individualistic. On the contrary, we are remarkably capable of caring, sharing, adapting, and responding to one another, provided the conditions allow it.

Rather than offering solutions for individual preparedness, De Noodzaak imagines something we have possessed all along: our deeply human capacity to care for one another when it matters most.