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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

This research paper concentrates on how human behavior caused both the Titanic and the Concordia sea disasters. Insights from scuba divers and from the command of aircraft carriers are also drawn upon to reveal leadership lessons aimed at mitigating risk in less predictable environments. The need for rational decision-making by leaders, as well as having pre-arranged behavior systems to remove cognitive biases and avoid in-the-moment panic, are of paramount importance when implementing consistent safety strategies at sea. Remaining loyal to this approach minimizes the risk of preventable disasters occurring.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Reports that EDI systems differ from traditional computer systems and, therefore, have special disaster recovery issues that need to be addressed; the main difference being that EDI systems cross organizational boundaries. Explains that this crossing of boundaries means that an organization must look beyond its own walls when constructing a disaster recovery plan. Identifies various concerns for inter‐enterprise systems. Presents a framework based on how the phases for disaster recovery planning can be used to address and plan for these concerns.

In recent years, there have been calls on African countries to develop disaster governance system that recognises the complex nature of disaster events and reflects how their impact can prevent governments from achieving their development objectives. This chapter examines Ghana’s response to the calls by exhuming disaster management policies and the missing links in their implementation. This research was approached by comprehensively reviewing literature related to the subject. The review was supported by field-based interviews involving key stakeholders, some of whom are directly involved with disaster policy planning and implementation. The results show that even though there are several disaster management policies, they are fragmented and found within several institutions, a situation that has created some missing links in their implementation. For instance, poor collaboration and coordination among disaster management institutions hampered efforts towards disaster risk prevention, preparedness and mitigation which are viewed as cross-cutting themes in disaster management. Even more intriguing, critical stakeholders such as community groups who often play important roles in rescue and recovery operations and continue to render humanitarian services after official operations have ended are excluded from the everyday decision-making processes. Empirically, this chapter draws attention to how endogenous interventions that are deeply rooted in the culture of the people that could support well-crafted disaster legislations are often ignored. This chapter concludes that these missing links need to be addressed in order to make Ghana resilient to disaster.

This research analyzes the alignment of story framing between Samarco and news media following the dam disaster in Minas Gerais in November 2015. Drawing on framing theory as the underlying impetus, the study seeks to answer five major questions: RQ1: How did Samarco frame the mining tragedy in the aftermath of the dam collapse? RQ2: How did the news media frame the mining tragedy in the aftermath of the dam collapse? RQ3: Did the frames presented by Samarco and news media coincide? RQ4: Did the frames presented by Samarco and news media contradict? RQ5: What can be observed about the information flow and interaction between news media and the general public on social media? From a methods perspective, the study uses comparative textual analysis and NodeXL social network visualization to analyze the discourse around Samarco and information flow on social media in the aftermath of the tragedy. The results show that, while some social media content served as a forum for expressions of empathy toward survivors, social media content on Twitter mostly delivered a one-sided and positive view of the firm’s actions.

This paper proposes a way of reflexing on how we think within critical disaster studies. It focuses on the biases and unthought dimensions of two concepts – resilience and development – and reflects on the relationship between theory and practice in critical disaster studies.

Premised on the idea of epistemic reflexivity developed by Pierre Bourdieu, and drawing on previous research, this theoretical article analyses two conceptual biases and shortcomings of disaster studies: how resilience builds on certain agency; and how development assumes certain political imagination.

The article argues that critical disaster scholars must reflect on their own intellectual practice, including the origin of concepts and what they do. This is exemplified by a description of how the idea of resistance is intimately connected to that of resilience, and by showing that we must go beyond the capitalist realism that typically underlies development and risk creation. The theoretical advancement of our field can provide ways of thinking about the premises of many of our concepts.

The paper offers an invitation for disaster researchers to engage with critical thought and meta-theoretical reflexions. To think profoundly about our concepts is a necessary first step to developing critical scholarship. Epistemic reflexivity in critical disaster studies therefore provides an interesting avenue by which to liberate the field from overly technocratic approaches and develop its own criticality.

The importance of education in disaster risk reduction has been emphasized in several international agendas, frameworks, conferences, as well as UN programs. Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, on “Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training” stated, “Education, including formal education, public awareness and training, should be recognized as a process by which human beings and societies can reach their fullest potential” (UNEP, 1992). Furthermore, the UN/ISDR System Thematic Cluster/Platform on Knowledge and Education argued that “Education for disaster risk reduction is an interactive process of mutual learning among people and institutions. It encompasses far more than formal education at schools and universities, and involves the recognition and use of traditional wisdom and local knowledge for protection from natural hazard” (UN/ISDR, 2005). In the 2006 Review of the Role of Education and Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction, Professor Ben Wisner commented, “Education, knowledge and awareness are critical to building the ability to reduce losses from natural hazards, as well as the capacity to respond to and recover effectively from extreme natural events when they do, inevitably, occur” (Wisner, 2006). The Second Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (2007, India) urged governments to make school safety and the integration of disaster risk reduction into school curricula a priority on the national agenda (UN/ISDR, 2007a). The Third Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (2008, Malaysia) recognized education as an essential contribution to effective implementation of disaster risk reduction and concrete impact in terms of shifts in behaviors at the local level, where communities are most vulnerable to disasters (UN/ISDR, 2008). Last but not least, the UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) program emphasized that “Education is the primary agent of transformation toward sustainable development, increasing people's capacities to transform their visions for society into reality” (UNESCO, 2005a).

Business continuity and disaster recovery are directly associated frameworks which guarantee the continued operations of organisations after a disaster has occurred. Thus, researchers have continued to investigate best practices in this area. It is in this vein that the authors of this study seek to draw attention to what pertains in Ghana and what role the government can play to improve the situation. The purpose of this study is to explore some of the disasters which have been suffered by businesses in Ghana as well as the causes, effects and lessons learnt. The study will also look at business continuity and disaster recovery measures that could have been implemented in the examples provided.

The study follows a literature review approach by reviewing secondary data on both man-made and natural disasters that have affected Ghana in the past decade through the review of literature.

The comprehensive study of the selected disasters indicated the presence of business continuity and disaster recovery measures in some formal institutions; however, the informal sector appeared to have minimal provision for handling disasters.

The authors were limited to the use of the account from the resources used since this study relied on secondary data.

The study indicates that businesses in Ghana must implement business continuity and disaster recovery plans to protect business operations in the event of a disaster.

The study has not been previously published in any other journal. Secondary data for carrying out the study were obtained from other publications including online media platforms in Ghana.

This paper focuses on how feminist research seeks to integrate the inclusion of women in society for them to be active participants in disaster management, and goes on to prove how crucial it is for disaster research to collaborate with feminist research to arrive at a cohesive, interwoven, interdisciplinary field and methodology, while at the same time giving the agency in the hands of local agents for them to bring about change through traditional methods interwoven with broader methodologies. To hand over the process to local agents would result in decolonisation of knowledge production and implementation.

The paper was written using secondary sources, mainly in the form of books, journal articles and news articles. Reports by international organisations were used to augment data and other theoretical frameworks and references in the paper. The secondary sources were selected keeping in view one of the primary objectives of the paper, namely “decolonising knowledge production”. Analysis by postcolonial authors from the global South has been included. Research and literature based in local contexts form an important part of the sources consulted throughout this paper. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been used as a case study to highlight how disasters are still “gendered”; it opens up space for further research on the topic.

Even though women are increasingly recognised as agents of positive change in prevention, mitigation and post-disaster efforts, very little is done at the policy and implementation levels to include their experiences and benefit from them. There is an urgent need for systemic, gender-aware changes at socio-economic and political levels so that hazards may be prevented from turning into disasters by reducing the vulnerability of populations.

The importance of this research lies in its interdisciplinary approach and the integration of three fields of study disaster management, feminist/gender studies and decolonising knowledge production. The attempt is to analyse the interdependence of these fields of study to understand the lacunae in planning and implementation of disaster management policies, and to pave the way for further research by way of this integration.

This paper aims to investigate two famous disasters at sea, the Titanic and the Concordia, separated by 100 years, based on a comparison and analysis of those historical events, demonstrating how lessons learned and training methods used in the hazardous marine environments of aircraft carrier operations, as well as the near-solo conditions of technical scuba diving, can be better implemented in managing a large ship at sea.

This study starts with a historical analysis of these two ship-wrecks, both large, technically advanced ships that sank due to poor leadership, a breakdown in command and panic. Next, the study compares and contrasts scuba with operations aboard an aircraft carrier, two different maritime scenarios, yet similar in that there are many hazards that may require split-second decisions with limited or no communication with others. Both these mind-sets and training approaches have direct application to leadership and disaster planning on a large ship by being focused on minimizing decisions under stress in order to reduce panic.

This study demonstrates the value and impact of training that minimizes decisions under stress and enable people to make decisions independently in the face of a loss of communications. Focusing on two famous naval accidents, our analysis shows how such training can prevent panic and disaster, and can have direct application to leadership and disaster planning on a large ship.

This study uniquely compares and contrasts many of the planning and decision-making strategies used for both aircraft carrier operations and technical scuba diving, and the need to be able to make split-second decisions without communicating to others, and how these approaches can be used to better train a commercial ship to respond to an unforeseen disaster at sea.

The topic of the paper is a description of basic elements of the philosophy of un/natural disasters generally, and specifically basic elements of multiple simultaneous un/natural disasters which is motivated by a series of disasters that hit Croatia all over 2020. The topic is presented in the following way: in the first part, case of Croatia 2020 is described in short; in the second part, elements of the philosophy of un/natural disasters are described; and based on the first and second part in the third part, the possibility of the philosophy of multiple simultaneous un/natural disasters which seem to be applicable to the case of Croatia 2020 is described. Elements of philosophy that are described are ontology, epistemology, a theory of action, and ethics. The purpose of the paper is to research the possibility of clarification of basic philosophical concepts in the context of disasters, namely existence-in, appearance/reality-in, knowledge-of, certainty-in, human action-in, habits-in, and morality and ethics of disasters. Research limitations relate mostly to conceptual-morphological research that hugely relies on facts of the case and on statistical and scientific data on disasters.