The societal relevance of communities in the COVID ‐19 era

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented and truly global social threat in recent human history. Understanding the impacts of the pandemic on our communities, as well as investigating and fostering effective responses, represents a genuinely interdisciplinary challenge, which deeply involves psychology. Social and community psychologists are working to understand the psychological processes characterising individual, familial, institutional, and communities' reactions to the pandemic worldwide. The present special issue consists of 15 articles from three continents (Europe, North and South America, and Asia) on the COVID-19 pandemic, how it is affecting various communities, and how communities are coping with the various local and societal dilemmas stemming from this dramatic health event. The articles make use of different methodologies, including correlational and longitudinal quantitative examinations as well as qualitative analyses. The studies consider a high number of participants (approximately 14,000) across a wide range of participant types, including older adults, women victims of violence, politicians, community samples, and representative samples. We hope that the special issue can help academics and practitioners to understand the phenomenon of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to foster active and supportive responses from individuals and communities at all levels, both societally and globally.