Emerging from Covid lockdown 

For the EPS’ fifth webinar on August 5 at 14:00hrs (BST), guest speaker Dr Chris Cocking, Principal Lecturer at the University of Brighton, presents: Emerging from Covid lockdown: 'Don't panic' or 'I predict a riot?'

Dr Cocking has an interest in crowd behaviour during emergencies and post disaster psycho-social support and will take a detailed look into the social psychology of human behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic. His focus will be on behaviour in the lead up to the lockdown – stock-piling or panic-buying; behaviour during lockdown such as spontaneous volunteering and mutual co-operation; and initial compliance with lockdown restrictions including how or why such compliance can decrease.

The webinar will also focus on the emergence from lockdown and fears of increased disorder such as when pubs re-open or free parties and the role of public information from government and media reporting in influencing compliance – or not – with all of the above.

Dr Cocking has worked extensively in the crowd management sector, consulting at large events in the South East of England. He also advises on emergency planning, and has been a visiting speaker at the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College. He has written previously on this subject for CRJ (Issues 14:1and 11:1).

He has provided other consultations for the London Resilience Team and the Greater London Assembly. He has been published in over 50 journals and user reports, including a case study by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, an impact study by the British Psychological Society. He is regularly asked to speak about his research to the media and he contributed recently to media debates about public behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

He is registered on the UK government’s Covid-19 Expert Database and has submitted evidence to UK Parliamentary Select Committee investigations into the pandemic. 

Places are limited so please do register in advance to attend what is sure to be an extremely interesting event - the event is open to non-members, so this link can be share with networks. Registering will also give you access to the webinar recording following the webinar.

If you have any questions please email and for further information on the ‘Community and city resilience and Covid-19’ series of webinars, click here. 

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