Chronic Crisis Research Articles

Humanitarianism, mobility and kinship: a reply to ‘Chronic crisis and nuclear disaster humanitarianism: recuperation of Chernobyl and Fukushima children in Italy’ by Ekatherina Zhukova

Humanitarianism, mobility and kinship: a reply to ‘Chronic crisis and nuclear disaster humanitarianism: recuperation of Chernobyl and Fukushima children in Italy’ by Ekatherina Zhukova

Communities in Crisis: The Medieval Archive and the Jewish Heritage Traveler

ABSTRACT This essay considers how the experience of being a Jewish heritage traveler inflects the author’s approach to reading and teaching medieval literature. For the author, Jewish heritage travel, whether medieval or modern, tells alternative histories which rely upon alternative ways of seeing and interpreting in the face of ongoing, chronic crisis. Just as the medieval travel narrative of Benjamin of Tudela lists Jewish monuments in Rome alongside Christian ones, modern heritage tours intersect with and deviate from mainstream historical narratives, highlighting the achievements — and suffering — of the Jewish minority. To examine medieval literature from this vantage point leads the author not only to construct a parallel archive of Jewish-authored narratives, but also to find surprising examples of collective identity, borne of trauma and the shared experience of crisis, in Christian anti-Semitic sources.

The Thrill of Emergency and the Chronic Crisis of Corruption

In the increasingly urgent public debates on India’s democracy, the Emergency (1975–77) is emerging as an important interpretative site: an exceptionally violent episode marked as a one-off crisis that also allows for an ongoing renegotiation of a modern Indian polity and culture. Manohar Malgonkar’s The Garland Keepers (1980), a little-known, fast-paced and highly entertaining political spy thriller, provides one entry point to situate the Emergency within its larger geopolitical and historical contexts of colonial rule, Partition, the Cold War and India–Pakistan relations. The article demonstrates that the crisis of the Emergency functions simultaneously as exceptional and non-exceptional, unexpected and yet familiar. Attention to narrative form and the various genealogies of the spy thriller and in India allow for an exploration of the relationship between genre and politics. I argue that even popular genres carry political meaning, revealing the tense negotiations between crisis and continuity, ultimately critiquing both the one-off Emergency and the iterative emergency of ongoing corruption.

Pandemic shows that global climate and biodiversity science assessments need to be annual

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated that with daily data informing citizens and governments of the situation, society can respond to a crisis rapidly. We suggest that the current multi-yearly assessments of the, by comparison, chronic crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are no longer fit for purpose. Instead, annual assessments (as is standard for governmental budgets, commercial and personal taxes) are now required. As with COVID-19 data, the annual progress reports proposed here must be accompanied by new biodiversity and climate data that are both timely and open access, thus supporting scientific advice. With public transparency and accessibility of facts and figures, annual reports will lead to more accountability and progress in addressing the causes of these crises.

Crisis, Alterity, and Tradition: An Anthropological Contribution to Critical Phenomenology

One does not just live in a crisis: a crisis calls for action. Etymologically, from the Greek krisis, it is a turning point or a moment of decision. It not only alters perception; it alters the demands for living. It stands out from the everyday. If we follow Gail Weiss (2008), we could say that a crisis is a moment when the ground called “ordinary life” is interrupted in such a way that it no longer functions as an out-of-awareness backdrop but itself becomes the visible figure. But what happens when the ground is already permeated by crises, large and small? How should we think about crisis when we cannot call upon a simple binary—times of crisis and somehow livable normal times? How to think, conceptually, about those communities who live with what is variously termed “slow death” (Berlant 2011), “slow violence,” (Nixon 2011) or “chronic crisis” (Vigh 2008) that make the everyday a source of such continual threat that crisis and non-crisis shade into one another? I ask these questions in the context of my twenty-year history of research in African American communities in which families are caring for children with disabilities and chronic illnesses.

The Labouring Undead: Zombification as a Metaphor of Contemporary Crisis-Management

The discursive field of economics is traversed by a multiplicity of metaphors. Yet, some conceptual domains lend themselves more readily to the expression of the ideological premises of financial affairs. The period since the economic meltdown of 2007 has been defined, in this regard, by a generalized apocalyptic vocabulary. In this paper, I propose to focus on the image of zombification that has become ubiquitous in crisis-management discourses, especially in the talk of so-called ‘zombie companies,’ ‘zombie banks’, or ‘zombie economies’. This discourse articulates the prospect of widespread economic collapse due to collateralized corporate debt. Inscribed with a distinct ontology of undeath, the metaphor, then, is conductive to a specific ‘necro-economic’ gesture that naturalizes the ‘Market’ as the basis of life itself, which, however, from time to time demands sacrifices to be restored and support life again. This becomes especially clear in contemporary re-circulations of Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of ‘creative destruction’, which assert that the ‘zombies’ must be neutralized to avoid the contamination of an otherwise ‘healthy’ system. As such, though, the discourse of economic zombiism is thoroughly underpinned by an imperialist unconscious that can be traced back to the emergence of the zombie figure in the context of pre-revolutionary Haiti. I propose to read the appropriation of the ‘zombie’ by neoliberal parlance as a metaphor that capital survives by. Functioning as a form of applied horror fiction, it establishes agency for ‘impersonal’ market mechanisms that externalize economic costs onto the peripheries of capitalism. In this sense, however, I argue that the rhetoric of crisis-management merely offers an imaginary resolution to a problematic that generates zombies not as an aberration but as a matter of course. Thus, I suggest that the ‘financial zombie’ functions simultaneously as a metaphor of chronic crisis and a metaphor of systemic immunization.

The Market Lives on Death: The Endocolonizing Logic of the Fascist Moment

This article poses the question of whether what we are witnessing today can be properly described as “fascistic.” It argues that it can if we understand fascism as an attack on liberal-democracy resulting from the now chronic (rather than acute) crisis of capitalism. Like the fascism of the twentieth century, this entails an endocolonizing logic that nonetheless relinquishes its claim on a future increasingly imperilled by the nature of the Covid-19 pandemic in the context of the impending climate emergency.

Setting the agenda in environmental crisis: Relationships between tweets, Google search trends, and newspaper coverage during the California drought.

Nuanced public responses to droughts and other chronic environmental crises reflect today’s increasingly complex communication ecosystem. At once global and infinitely customizable, this vast array of media and information channels requires existing theory to address the implications of interactions among social media, “traditional” mass media outlets, and information-seeking tools such as search engines. How do these channels intervene in public conversation? What might the agenda-setting perspective have to say? Data collected during peak years of the California drought, 2013–2015, indicate that California residents responded to worsening drought conditions Twitter first, which was the only media behavior directly stimulated by environmental stressors. Google searches stimulated newspaper coverage and Twitter activity, revealing the centrality of search behaviors in this environmental crisis. The findings suggest significant changes to the communication landscape as individual and collective users become increasingly dependent on non-mainstream media channels for information in chronic crisis situations.

Wolfgang Streeck in Tokyo: Japan’s secular stagnation as a delayed crisis of democratic capitalism

Since the 1990s Japan has experienced a prolonged period of crisis. Much work has thus far focused on understanding Japan’s crisis on its own terms. Yet we must also consider Japan’s situation within the wider context of global capitalism, examining how the crisis in Japan may be related to, or even integrated within, similar crisis tendencies both within other Northern countries and at the level of the capitalist world system. This article thus asks how our understanding of Japan’s crisis can be enriched by situating it within a wider analysis of crisis and transformation across the Global North. It contends that a common thread of sporadic and yet chronic economic crisis emanating from unresolved contradictions that emerged in the wake of the crisis of Keynesianism in the 1970s can be seen to link Japan’s long-term crisis with similar dynamics in the US and Europe. In developing this argument, the article engages closely with Wolfgang Streeck's 2017 book Buying Time, using a careful reading of Streeck’s argument about the delayed crisis of democratic capitalism that has afflicted countries across the Global North since the 1970s to deepen our understanding of contemporary Japan’s secular stagnation. Following Streeck, it argues that many of the same factors that have driven this “delayed crisis” in the US and elsewhere are also found in Japan. At the same time, Japan’s crisis has been sharpened by global political economic challenges, including the decline of American hegemony and the rise of China, as well as the contradiction between conditions necessary for capital accumulation and stable social reproduction. The article seeks not only to show how Streeck’s argument can help us understand Japan’s crisis in relation to similar crises across the Global North, but also to explore how the Japanese case may point to limitations in Streeck’s argument.

An Ayurvedic Management of Sickle Cell Anemia in Children: A case study

Introduction:- Sickle cell anemia is a term for a group of genetic diseases characterized by the production of hemoglobin (Hb) "S". This is the result of replacing the base pair thymine at the 6th position of the β-globin gene on chromosome 11 with adenine and replacing valine with glutamic acid. A single amino acid substitution is the reason for the profound changes in the stability and solubility of the hemoglobin "S" molecule. Due to its chronic nature and painful crisis, children’s quality of life is difficult. From now on, there is no final treatment other than a successful bone marrow transplant. Its symptoms and the nature of the disease can be compared with Pandu. If a drug improves the quality of life and maintains the health of the patient, then the drug and efforts will be beneficial to society. Material and Methods:- A 9-year-old male patient was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia. Symptoms include joint and limb pain, anorexia, fatigue, loss of appetite, and weight loss. approached the OPD, department of Kaumarbhritya, Parul Institute of Ayurved, Vadodara. Observations and Results:-The patient is taking modern medicine (1 mg folic acid once a day). The Childs parents also wanted to take Ayurvedic medicine, so they came here for 2 months of Ayurvedic medicine treatment, during which he did not have a pain crisis.Weight improved From 16 kg to 18 kg.The quality of life of a patient is also improved. Conclusion:-Therefore, the purpose of this case study is to study the pathophysiology and treatment of sickle cell anemia from an Ayurvedic perspective and to study the possible mechanism of action of the drug.

How the Iranian Regime Survived: Examining Internal and External Strategies

Following the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 and the reimposition of economic sanctions, Iran witnessed public unrest that threatened the survival of the regime. Throughout its history, the Iranian regime has deployed various intricate internal and external strategies that have worked separately at times, and overlapped at others, to secure the regime against threats and guarantee its survivability. It is important to discover the strategies the Iranian regime has followed to survive the stifling crises it has faced since its establishment in 1979, in order to evaluate whether it will be able to survive its chronic economic crises. While the regime has purposely supported the Palestinian cause, strengthened its relations with non-state actors, and engaged in religious discourses on an external level, it has also achieved militarization and securitization, populated unelected governmental institutions with personnel loyal to its clerical and military institutions rather than qualified persons and pursued legitimacy renewal on an internal level.

Bruno Lima Awardee Designs Public Health Approach to COVID-19

Bruno Lima Awardee Designs Public Health Approach to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic as a long-term school crisis: Impact, risk, resilience, and crisis management.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents school communities across the United States and world with an unpresented challenge. Virtually, all members of school communities have been impacted and the long-term ramifications of the pandemic remain unknown. However, despite being a novel virus, crisis management practices for other crisis (e.g., natural disasters, technological disasters, unexpected deaths) have utility for school safety promotion and helping affected individuals cope effectively with the monumental challenges they face during the pandemic. Such practices can reduce risk while fostering resilience concomitantly. This special issue, Perspectives on COVID-19: Addressing Diverse Needs of Children, Youth, Families, Educators, and Human Service Professionals, includes a diverse collection of conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative articles addressing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on youth and their families, educators, allied human services professionals, and the systems in which they work. Consistent with a crisis management and risk and resilience perspectives, articles emphasize youth most vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19, including youth with disabilities, from minoritized backgrounds, and within underserved populations. Articles also have implications for coping, resilience, and intervention and focus on how service delivery can best meet the needs of those impacted by acute and chronic crisis events. The research and scholarship included in this special issue represents an important step forward with providing school psychologists and related professions with cutting-edge information that can help enhance their practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Synergies Between COVID-19 and Climate Change Impacts and Responses

The COVID-19 pandemic and anthropogenic climate change are global crises. We show how strongly these crises are connected, including the underlying societal inequities and problems of poverty, substandard housing, and infrastructure including clean water supplies. The origins of all these crises are related to modern consumptive industrialisation, including burning of fossil fuels, increasing human population density, and replacement of natural with human dominated ecosystems. Because business as usual is unsustainable on all three fronts, transformative responses are needed. We review the literature on risk management interventions, implications for COVID-19, for climate change risk and for equity associated with biodiversity, water and WaSH, health systems, food systems, urbanization and governance. This paper details the considerable evidence base of observed synergies between actions to reduce pandemic and climate change risks while enhancing social justice and biodiversity conservation. It also highlights constraints imposed by governance that can impede deployment of synergistic solutions. In contrast to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governance systems have procrastinated on addressing climate change and biodiversity loss as these are interconnected chronic crises. It is now time to address all three to avoid a multiplication of future crises across health, food, water, nature, and climate systems.

La acumulación de solicitudes de reconocimiento del estatuto de persona refugiada en los sistemas de asilo de América Latina

La región latinoamericana ha comenzado a posicionarse como un actor protagónico a la hora de recibir solicitudes de protección internacional por parte de personas desplazadas forzadas. El incremento de demandas de asilo exige de los Estados un aumento en su capacidad de procesarlas y de dar respuesta en un plazo razonable. Asimismo, los Estados tienen el desafío adicional de adecuar su estructura y burocracia a una situación sin precedentes, el COVID-19, que alteró y seguirá afectando el curso de los trámites relativos a la petición de asilo. Identificando crecientes demoras en dar respuesta a las solicitudes, la propuesta de este artículo ronda en torno a la cuestión del respeto del plazo razonable, apunta a señalar los mayores riesgos que se desprenden de su incumplimiento, así como también rastrear soluciones que ya estén en marcha y esbozar otras propuestas posibles.

Chronic conditions and COVID-19 in informal urban settlements: a protracted emergency

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has forced a reckoning about how we live, and in particular how exposure to disease risks are unevenly distributed. This contribution explores connections between the COVID-19 pandemic, chronic disease and conditions of chronic crisis among the urban poor. We suggest two issues in urgent need of attention in the long and short term are: 1) the underestimated burdens of chronic disease among the urban poor, and 2) the chronic states of crises which contribute to these chronic conditions and their under-recognition. We contend that the burden of ‘pre-existing’ conditions in informal settlements is under-diagnosed and poorly managed in communities. In order to address these burdens, for COVID-19 and beyond, we must recognise they are a product of the protracted crisis which is everyday life for many of the urban poor, for whom illness is one of the many everyday struggles and consistent quality care is out of reach. For many people living on the margins, crisis is the norm, yet both this and its impacts on health are underestimated; for change to be realised, this must be the starting point.

How good or bad was the Romanian strategy of transition

Romania’s performances over the past 30 years are not impressive. The economy displays dramatic crises and modest increases, though there were years of important growth. The country faces unsolved chronic crises: agriculture and industry are in a state of confusion, lacking a strategic vision; underdeveloped public functions are facing severe social issues. Demographic decline, underemployment, and poverty are far from being significantly reduced. Also, the political factor, supposed to be the engine of development, seems to be locked in conflicts for power that express actually the lack of vision. The article argues that more than ever, Romania is at a crossroads. We enter inevitably into a new stage of our history. We might continue on the path we engaged on up to now, but the future does not seem by far the one we wish for. Or, we need rather to disengage from the process that kept us in a bottleneck and put forward a new vision, new options, and democratic-led decisions. In brief, a program for the social and economic development of the country. The article concludes that in order to surpass the current crisis a new model of social-economic development of the country should be enhanced, ensuring prosperity for the whole population.

Crisis After Crisis: The Pandemic and Women’s Work

The pandemic has resulted in severe dislocations in the lives of many women workers especially the poor and the neglected, exacerbating the ‘chronic crisis’ in the everyday existence of the workers to unprecedented proportions. Evidences from the ground signal desperate times with women workers facing severe unemployment, reduced incomes and adverse conditions of work. The article argues that the crisis of women’s work caused by COVID-19 is not a sudden tragic consequence of the pandemic, but an outcome of pre-existing structural and systemic ruptures. For long, women have confronted, exclusion and precarious employment opportunities resulting from anti-women attitude at workplaces with lack of acknowledgement and attempts to address the deep-rooted structural fault lines leading to systemic failures. After giving the larger background that are important in the understanding of women’s employment in the context of the pandemic, the article gives an overview of women’s employment during the pandemic taking up two specific sectors that are particularly marked—paid domestic work and frontline community workers (ASHA and Anganwadi workers) are examined in detail. The article suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated and personalised the endemic context of crisis for women calling for state intervention at the time to correct systemic issues that have positioned women unequally in employment. JEL Codes: A14, B54, F66, J01, J21

Out of time: adolescents and those who wait for them

ABSTRACT This paper draws on the scholarship of an inter-disciplinary project about time and waiting in healthcare to explore questions of urgency and risk in clinical work with depressed and suicidal young people, and how the feeling of being compelled to act can be meaningfully explored from a psychoanalytic perspective. The paper examines adolescence as both a time of inherent crisis and one in which self-harm and suicidal ideation represent particular challenges. It then considers Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service practice in relation to acute mental health crisis, and in the context of the chronic crisis affecting the UK National Health Service. Considering both formal psychoanalytic psychotherapy and the contribution of psychoanalytic thinking to multidisciplinary discussions and emergency work in CAMHS, the author then considers the anticipatory anxieties that affect such work, and the particular role of psychoanalytic thinking for young people burdened by suicidal ideation and the professionals caring for them.

Neurological manifestations in glutaric acidemia type 1 and the impact of expanded neonatal screening in Brazil

Glutaric acidemia type 1 (GA1) is an inborn error of metabolism caused by the deficiency of the enzyme glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, with consequent accumulation of the aminoacids lysine, hydroxylsine and tryptophan. About 1 in every 100,000 individuals are affected by the disease. Neurological manifestations are variable and include acute and chronic encephalopathic crises, dystonia, motor and cognitive deficits, as well as neuroimaging findings such as brain hypoplasia, striatal, white matter and subdural effusions. Early diagnosis is crucial for specific therapy, which includes a diet with restricted amino acids and carnitine replacement. The present work describes the variability of neurological manifestations in four patients with glutaric acidemia type 1, diagnosed in different age groups, through mass spectrometry, technology of the expanded neonatal screening available in the Ministry of Health program in Federal District, Brazil. Complications of GA1 were more severe in cases with later diagnosis, which justifies the use of the enlarged neonatal screening as an important resource in the early diagnosis and treatment of inborn errors of metabolism.