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Article
Publication date: 3 September 2019

Sharon O’Brien and Federico Marco Federici

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role that language translation can play in disaster prevention and management and to make the case for increased attention to…

1901

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role that language translation can play in disaster prevention and management and to make the case for increased attention to language translation in crisis communication.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on literature relating to disaster management to suggest that translation is a perennial issue in crisis communication.

Findings

Although communication with multicultural and multilinguistic communities is seen as being in urgent need of attention, the authors find that the role of translation in enabling this is underestimated, if not unrecognized.

Originality/value

This paper raises awareness of the need for urgent attention to be given by scholars and practitioners to the role of translation in crisis communication.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 31 July 2023

Rob van Tulder, Isabel Álvarez and Elisa Giuliani

A cascade of crises that materialized in particular over the 2019–2022 period, increases the relevance for international business (IB) scholarship to address the following…

Abstract

A cascade of crises that materialized in particular over the 2019–2022 period, increases the relevance for international business (IB) scholarship to address the following question: whether, to what extent and under what circumstances can multinational enterprises (MNEs) rescue the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and make sure that nobody is left behind in a globalized world where the opposite seems to be the case? For many MNEs, slow progress in implementing the SDGs in a more strategic and transformational manner does not necessarily hint at a lack of interest with management, but also at a lack of solid knowledge and/or experience in how to implement general development ambitions like the SDGs. This introductory chapter defines the intellectual and managerial challenges ahead. It refers to relevant efforts already done in the IB community – with reference to IB journals that issued special editions on the topic – and explains why five angles have been chosen to cluster the contributions in this volume which are also aimed to enhance further progress in the study of MNEs and the SDGs: (1) general, (2) strategic, (3) operational, (4) contextual and (5) misbehavior.

Details

International Business and Sustainable Development Goals
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-505-7

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 April 2022

Joni Karjalainen, Njeri Mwagiru, Hazel Salminen and Sirkka Heinonen

Crises are major events or periods faced by individuals, groups and society. This paper aims to explore the value of facilitating (un)learning in and from crises. Educators have a…

1725

Abstract

Purpose

Crises are major events or periods faced by individuals, groups and society. This paper aims to explore the value of facilitating (un)learning in and from crises. Educators have a key role in building futures literacy (FL) for dealing with uncertainties, understanding emergence and responding to rapid, complex change. Integrating crisis learning as part of FL is important for enhanced anticipatory and crisis responses.

Design/methodology/approach

Adapting from causal layered analysis (CLA) methodology, experimental virtual futures workshops were designed and hosted during the coronavirus pandemic. Participants discussed COVID-19 crisis responses and imagined the “new normal”. Sessions explored mindsets applied to make sense and derive meaning from the crisis, myriad ways of adapting to uncertainty, as well as lenses used to imagine post-crisis futures.

Findings

In the exploratory and participatory CLA exercises, participants shared on the COVID-19 pandemic and imagined post-crisis futures. Related hopes and fears concerned self, collectives and nature. Overall, despite the dramatic nature of crises, opportunities exist for learning and transformation. Educators play a central role in heightening awareness about the dynamics and nature of crises, and integrating crisis learning into FL, as important and transformative capabilities.

Research limitations/implications

In exploratory dialogues, the “new normal” was applied as a frame for uncertainty. The workshops were hosted during the COVID-19 pandemic as a specific type of crisis. The workshop design is intended to be replicable in various crisis contexts and for iterative rounds with diverse groups. Therefore, futures images exemplify context-specific crisis-time sentiments. The findings presented here do not aim to be generalizable. They are liable to change across different crises, as a crisis evolves and across diverse stakeholders.

Practical implications

Dramatic change and crisis events offer potential moments for development, advancement and transformation. Educators have an important role in facilitating (un)learning in and from crises, elevating FL and expanding futures consciousness. The CLA methodology can assist educators to engage with multiple facets, layers and dimensions of crises. By considering crises intently, educators can help in anticipating emergence, imagining and preparing for diverse alternatives.

Social implications

The contemporary world is volatile, complex and ambiguous volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA), as revealed by multiple crises. Crises can spotlight new possibilities and horizons and may be possible turning points. The COVID-19 is an example of a crisis disruption, which provoked thinking and contributed to action about novel prospects. To realise transformative change however, it is important to integrate crisis learning as part of FL, and here educators are an important influence.

Originality/value

Integrating crisis learning into FL is proposed to improve responses to the rapid pace of change and uncertainty as well as to boost crisis preparedness. As part of this, there is value in applying and developing techniques such as CLA that help explore and question assumptions, to understand diverse, possible and transformed futures. This way, we can explore, imagine and expand new horizons.

Details

On the Horizon: The International Journal of Learning Futures, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1074-8121

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 31 July 2023

Abstract

Details

International Business and Sustainable Development Goals
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-505-7

Article
Publication date: 28 August 2019

David E. Alexander and Gianluca Pescaroli

The purpose of this paper is to explain the significance of cascading crises for translators and interpreters, and how their work may be affected by such events. It provides a…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain the significance of cascading crises for translators and interpreters, and how their work may be affected by such events. It provides a theoretical basis for analysis and field practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors define cascades and explain how they influence the development of preparedness, mitigation and response. The authors identify key drivers of cascading crises and discuss how they challenge conventional approaches to emergency management. The authors discuss ways in which use of language could be a key factor in crisis escalation. The authors define priorities and operational challenges of cascading crises for translators and interpreters. In terms of methodology, this paper develops a conceptual framework that can be used for future enquiry and case history analysis.

Findings

The authors provide a qualitative description and synthesis of the key instructions to be used in the field. The authors offer a short list of key questions that can be referred to by linguists and scholars. The authors identify situations in which translation and interpretation are important ingredients in the success of emergency preparedness and response efforts. These include multilingual populations, migrant crises, international humanitarian deployment and emergency communication during infrastructure failures.

Research limitations/implications

This work has academic value for the process of understanding cascades and practical relevance in terms of how to deal with them.

Practical implications

Translators and interpreters need to understand cascading crises in order to be prepared for the challenges that such events will present.

Social implications

Society has become more complex and interconnected, with non-linear cascading escalation of secondary emergencies. Emergency planners and responders need to address this in new ways. Effective communication and information strategies are essential to the mitigation of cascading disaster risk.

Originality/value

The study of cascading crises from a socio-economic point of view is relatively new, but it is important because society is increasingly dependent on networks that can propagate failure of information supply.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 March 2019

Aimin Wang

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for assessing the vulnerability of projects to crises. The study seeks to clarify the cascade effects of disruptions leading to…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for assessing the vulnerability of projects to crises. The study seeks to clarify the cascade effects of disruptions leading to project crises and to improve project robustness against crises from a systems perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

A framework for assessing project vulnerability to crises is developed using complex network theory. The framework includes network representation of project systems, analyzing project network topology, simulating the cascade of unexpected disruptions and assessing project vulnerability. Use of the framework is then illustrated by applying it to a case study of a construction project.

Findings

Project network topology plays a critical role in resisting crises. By increasing the resilience of the critical tasks and adjusting the structure of a project, the complexity and vulnerability of the project can be reduced, which in turn decreases the occurrence of crises.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed framework is used in a case study. Further studies of its application to projects in diverse industries would be beneficial to enhance the robustness of the results.

Practical implications

Project crises can threaten the survival of a project and endanger the organization’s security. The proposed framework helps prevent and mitigate project crises by protecting critical tasks and blocking the diffusion path from a systems perspective.

Originality/value

This paper presents a novel framework based on complex network theory to assess project vulnerability, which provides a systemic understanding of the cascade of disruptions that lead to project crises.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 12 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2023

Andrew Maskrey, Garima Jain and Allan Lavell

This paper explores the building blocks of risk governance systems that are equipped to manage systemic risk in the 21st century. Whilst approaches to risk governance have been…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores the building blocks of risk governance systems that are equipped to manage systemic risk in the 21st century. Whilst approaches to risk governance have been evolving for more than a decade, recent disasters have shown that conventional risk management solutions need to be complemented with a multidimensional risk approach to govern complex risks and prevent major, often simultaneous, crises with cascading and knock-on effects on multiple, interrelated systems at scale. The paper explores which risk governance innovations will be essential to provide the enabling environment for sustainable development that is resilient to interrelated shocks and risks.

Design/methodology/approach

This interdisciplinary literature review-based thought piece highlights how systemic risk is socially constructed and identifies guiding principles for systemic risk governance that could be actionable by and provide entry points for local and national governments, civil society and the private sector. particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), in a way that is relevant to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This considers preparedness, response and resilience, but more importantly prospective and corrective risk control and reduction strategies and mechanisms. Only when systemic risk is framed in a way that is relevant to the political agendas of countries will it be possible to begin a dialogue for its governance.

Findings

The paper identifies opportunities at the global, national and local levels, which together draw up a viable framework for systemic risk governance that (1) embraces the governance of sustainability and resilience through a strengthened holistic governance framework for social, economic, territorial and environmental development; (2) improves managing conventional risk to ultimately manage systemic risks; (3) fosters the understanding of vulnerability and exposure to gain insight into systemic risk; (4) places a greater focus on prospective risk management; (5) manages systemic risk in local infrastructure systems, supply chains and ecosystems; (6) shifts the focus from protecting privatized gains to managing socialized risk.

Originality/value

The choices and actions that societies take on the path of their development are contributing intentionally or unintentionally to the construction of systemic risks, which result in knock-on effects among interconnected social, environmental, political and economic systems. These risks are manifesting in major crises with cascading effects and a real potential to undermine the achievement of the SDGs, as COVID-19 is a stark reminder of. This paper offers the contours of a new risk governance paradigm that is able to navigate the new normal in a post-COVID world and is equipped to manage systemic risk.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 32 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 1 January 2004

Roger D. Congleton

A crisis typically has three characteristics. First, a crisis is unexpected, a complete surprise. Second, a crisis is normally unpleasant in that current plans are found to work…

Abstract

A crisis typically has three characteristics. First, a crisis is unexpected, a complete surprise. Second, a crisis is normally unpleasant in that current plans are found to work less well than had been anticipated. Third, a crisis requires an urgent response of some kind. That is to say, an immediate change of plans is expected to reduce or avoid the worst consequences associated with the unpleasant surprise. These characteristics imply that not every public policy problem is a crisis, because many public policy problems are anticipated or long-standing. The present social security problem faced by most Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations is not a crisis, although it is a serious problem. Other policy problems are clearly worsened rather than improved when current policies are abandoned. This may be said of constitutional law, in cases in which minor unexpected problems arise from longstanding political procedures. Other policy problems lack immediacy, even when they are unanticipated. This might be argued, for example, of global warming, which was unanticipated prior to 1990 yet is anticipated to take decades to emerge. Not every serious problem is a crisis.1

Details

The Dynamics of Intervention: Regulation and Redistribution in the Mixed Economy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-053-1

Article
Publication date: 16 March 2022

Úrsula Oswald-Spring

This paper aims to analyze a decolonized peace with gender perspective. Liberal democracies had consolidated on conquest, slavery, racism, sexism, colonialism, raw material…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze a decolonized peace with gender perspective. Liberal democracies had consolidated on conquest, slavery, racism, sexism, colonialism, raw material extraction and female exploitation. Additional burdens came from neoliberal globalization with the massive burning of fossil oil, changing the Earth's history from the Holocene toward the Anthropocene. Multiple nexus between the human and environmental system requires an epistemology from the Global South. The paper explores alternative peace paradigms enabling poor and exploited people to overcome the destructive outcomes of patriarchal violence and extractivism. Regionally and locally, they are experimenting with just, safe, equal and sustainable alternatives of free societies.

Design/methodology/approach

The nexus approach focuses on system efficiency, internal and external feedbacks and allows decision-making processes with stronger cross-sectoral coordination and multi-level governance. It includes the understanding of the policy agenda and the political actors at different levels, explaining the discrimination of gender from local to global. The analysis establishes complex relations between theory and political actions, due that all actions are inherently mediated by gender. A key focus is a relationship and the outcomes of policies, where communication and collaboration at the local level grant efficient peaceful resource management with gender equity.

Findings

An engendered-sustainable peace approach is culturally decentralized and may offer alternatives to the ongoing destruction process of neoliberal corporatism and violence. Drastic systemic change requires massive changes from bottom-up and top-down before 2030–2050. Global solidarity among all excluded people, especially women and girls, promotes from childhood an engendered-sustainable peace-building process, where positive feedbacks may reduce the tipping points on Earth and among humankind. Engendered-sustainable peace can mitigate the upcoming conflicts and catastrophes, limiting the negative feedbacks from abusive, selfish and destructive corporations. A greater self-regulating sustainable system with a HUGE-security could promote a decolonized, engendered and sustainable peace for everybody.

Research limitations/implications

The interconnected risks are cascading across different domains, where systemic challenges have intensified conflicts and violence, due to uncertainty, instability and fragility. Cascading effects not only demand prevention for sudden disruptions (hurricanes, floods) but also for slow-ongoing processes (drought, sea-level rise, lack of water availability, etc.), which are equally or more disruptive. Women suffer differently from disasters and are prone to greater impacts on their life and livelihood. An engendered peace is limited by the deep engrained patriarchal system. Only a culture of peace with gender recognition may grant future peace and also the sustainable care of ecosystems.

Practical implications

The Global South is exploring alternative ways to overcome the present violent and destructive globalization by promoting deep engrained indigenous values of Aymaras’ living well, the shell model of commanding by obeying of the Zapatistas or Bhutan’s Happiness Index. Globally, critical women and men are promoting subsistence agriculture, solidarity or gift economy, where local efforts are restoring the equilibrium between humans and nature. An engendered-sustainable peace is limiting the destructive impacts of the Anthropocene, climate change and ongoing pandemics.

Social implications

An engendered-sustainable peace is culturally decentralized and offers alternatives to the ongoing destruction process of neoliberal corporatism, climate change and violence. The text explores how to overcome the present hybrid warfare with alternative HUGE security and peace from the bottom-up. Regional reinforcement of food security, safe water management, local jobs and a concordian economy for the most vulnerable may change the present exploitation of nature and humankind. Growing solidarity with people affected by disasters is empowering women and girls and dismantling from the bottom-up, the dominant structures of violence and exploitation.

Originality/value

The military-industrial-scientific corporate complex and the exploitation of women, men and natural resources, based on patriarchy, has produced climate change, poverty and global pandemics with millions of unnecessary deaths and suffering. A doughnut engendered peace looking from the outside and inside of the system of globalization and environmental destruction proposes to overcome the growth addiction by a growth agnostic society. Engendered peace explores alternative and sustainable values that go beyond the dominant technological changes. It includes a culturally, politically and institutionally ingrained model where everybody is a participant, reinforcing an engendered-sustainable peace and security for everybody.

Details

Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-6599

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 April 2020

Abhilash Panda and Andrew Bower

The purpose of this paper is to concentrate on the place of cyber security risk in the framework of global commitments adopted in 2015 to reduce disaster risks in an all-hazards…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to concentrate on the place of cyber security risk in the framework of global commitments adopted in 2015 to reduce disaster risks in an all-hazards approach. It explores the correlations between traditional risks associated with critical infrastructures – as understood by the Sendai framework – cyber security risks and the cascading effects characteristic of today’s complex and interrelated shocks and stresses. It takes a step further, expanding the focus of traditionally understood technological risks to explore cyber security risks, at the heart of our societies’ digital transformations,and showcase opportunities from the European context.

Design/methodology/approach

By reviewing existing literature on cyber security, disaster resilience and cascading disasters, this paper highlights current challenges and good practices undertaken by various governments.

Findings

Understanding disaster risks is a precondition to improving the mitigation of impacts of existing risks and preventing new risks. Effective risk reduction relies on a solid understanding of losses resulting from events to inform future actions, and on the assessment of risks relying on a robust evidence base and state-of-the-art scientific capacity to model and simulate potential hazards. In this context, embedding cyber security risks, and the complexity of cascading impacts in improving the understanding of disaster risks, calls for appropriate methods and tools allowing for a multi-risk and holistic focus to the assessment of risks and the planning of risk management capacities that follow.

Research limitations/implications

Globally and in Europe, focus on interconnected risk and their impacts is steadily increasing. Risk assessments are still conservative; incorporation of cyber resilience into national and local level DRR plans is yet not visible.

Originality/value

Existing research is restricted to cyber security and disaster resilience, as separated subjects. This paper, for the first time, brings together the interconnection between the two topic options to address them.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 2000