Context Of Crisis Research Articles

Social Emotional Learning with Refugees in East Africa

Social emotional learning (SEL) has become a popular trend in the field of Education in Emergencies (EiE). Many SEL programs targeting refugee learners aim to help individuals develop skills that are necessary for learning and development, as well as mitigate the adverse impacts of crisis and displacement. While nearly half a billion USD has been invested in SEL initiatives for refugee and crisis contexts world-wide, little evidence exists about the impacts of SEL interventions with refugee communities. As 20% of all refugees globally reside in East Africa, and it is estimated that over 152 million African children live in active conflict zones, this study set out to qualitatively examine understandings, implementation, and implications of SEL interventions across actors engaging refugee communities in the region. The results expose tensions, challenges, and complex dynamics related to culture, power, and the complicated reality of implementing refugee education initiatives in East Africa. While further research into this area of inquiry is needed and proposed, these study findings provide a stronger understanding of the refugee education landscape in East Africa and its current insufficiencies through the example of SEL, and serve to inform other topical EiE interventions and the broader uptake of SEL by education systems globally.

Ukrainian refugees of the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war in NATO countries: the geopolitical context of the military migration crisis

ABSTRACT The Russian-Ukrainian war is being waged on the territory of Ukraine, but it is of global importance. One of the aspects of the war is the mass migration of Ukrainians abroad. The causes and features of migration are explained in the global geopolitical context. In recent years, war refugees have become increasingly important in world migration flows. This testifies to the crisis of the world order that arose in the early 1990s. The uniqueness of the flow of refugees from Ukraine is its extraordinary size, speed of movement, gender and age imbalance, the predominance of urban residents with a high level of education. In the future, this prepares for Ukraine a demographic catastrophe and difficulties in the post-war reconstruction of the country. The author concludes that a solution to the Ukrainian military migration crisis can be found in the context of changes in the post-war world order.

Appropriately Managing Knowledge in Romanian Entrepreneurial Businesses: Finding Balance in Restructuring Companies

In light of the global economy transformation and the several crises affecting the world, streamlining and reorganization of companies' activities is a priority. We posit that concentration of knowledge and its use in companies for short term gains can lead to misguided economic behavior, crisis and insolvencies coupled with low probability of successful restructuring. In turn the success of restructuring is dependent on cohesive knowledge management while dispersed knowledge management can, at most, prolong the economic life of a company and not save it from demise. We analyze the impact and lack of impact that knowledge and its guided/misguided management can have on Romanian companies, ex ante and ex post insolvency procedures. We chose both an exploratory and explanatory case study approach of Romanian companies affected by economic crisis that underwent various insolvency stages, tracing the use of knowledge and its different practical deployment to the decision-making processes and their outcomes. We review the causes that lead to the economic crisis and subsequent insolvency contexts. We compare the use of knowledge by the companies’ leadership against similar cases in other jurisdictions and we identify patterns of successful and unsuccessful application of knowledge management. Next, we investigate the effects of dispersed knowledge management in the early insolvency stages, focusing on the reorganization phase identifying gaps and discussing potential solutions. The results suggest, as they apply to the researched case studies, that both concentrated and dispersed knowledge management within distressed companies do not lead to positive outcomes and a balanced approach to knowledge management is more prone to provide effective and viable restructuring. The article explores several knowledge management theories and various academic research as they relate to the decision-making process for Romanian companies in distress and expands the academic universe as it relates to knowledge treatment in economic crisis. The results of our research and the potential solutions discussed can be further developed into a best practice guidance or a practical model to be used both by academics and practitioners as well.

Energy and the social contract: From “energy consumers” to “people with a right to energy”

AbstractThroughout the last decade, the goal of acknowledging and alleviating energy poverty has made its way to the core of energy policies across the world, including the high‐standing SDG7 as a benchmark. While much debate is still devoted to conceptual and empirical clarifications, its measurement through indicators, or the appropriate policies aimed at tackling it, there is widespread acceptance that energy poverty impacts tens of millions of lives across Europe and beyond. More recently, energy poverty has been deepened by a succession of international crises. We argue that the responses currently enacted to address energy poverty, in the context of these overlapping crises, point to a more profound problem that pre‐existed the crises and reflects the current paradigm for household energy access. In this article, we aim to tie some of the loose ends in debates around the right to energy. We address some essential underpinnings of a rights‐based approach to energy, by connecting existing narratives to the broader scope of the social contract, used as a concept which bears implications on the social and economic arrangements emphasized by the fundamental pillars of SDGs. We argue that, because energy markets are highly sensitive to instability and crisis contexts, there is a need to shift the paradigm from energy as a commodity purchased by consumers from markets towards energy as a right of people living in modern political communities, and tailoring energy policies around the right to energy.

Multi-stage low-carbon planning of an integrated energy system considering demand response

In the context of energy crisis, the development of low-carbon integrated energy systems has become a prominent research area. This article addresses the challenges posed by high energy consumption and emissions in integrated energy systems by proposing a multi-stage planning method for low-carbon integrated energy that considers load time transfer characteristics. The first step involves examining the time transfer characteristics of demand response and analyzing the economic benefits of integrated energy systems participating in the electricity–carbon market. Subsequently, a multi-stage green low-carbon planning model for the integrated energy system is constructed. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed model, actual calculation results are obtained. These results demonstrate that the demand response, specifically in data centers, can significantly reduce the operational costs of integrated energy systems. Furthermore, the multi-stage low-carbon planning approach is shown to be more reasonable and economically beneficial compared to single-stage planning. Overall, this research article provides insights into the development of low-carbon integrated energy systems within the context of energy crisis. By considering load time transfer characteristics and employing a multi-stage planning method, this article highlights the potential for reducing costs and improving the overall efficiency of integrated energy systems.

Gunshot wounds of low urinary tract in period of security crisis at the Sominé Dolo Hospital of Mopti (Mali): Epidemiological and diagnostic aspects

Firearm injuries to the lower urinary tract are injuries resulting from an energy transfer from a projectile fired by a firearm or a blast from a firearm, to the bladder, prostate, urethra and terminal ureter. Our objective was to describe the epidemiological and diagnostic aspects in the context of a security crisis. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of lower urinary tract firearm injuries at Sominé Dolo Hospital in Mopti from January 2017to December 2021. In five years, 29traumas of the lower urinary tract have been collected, about 6cases per year. The mean age of patients was 27.48years, the sex ratio was 13.5/1. The main circumstances of occurrence were intercommunal violence 51.72%, war wounds 31.03%. Injuries were inflicted by rifles in 62.1% and improvised explosive devices in 37.9%. The main modes of discovery were acute urine retention, hematuria and penoscrotal wounds respectively in 31.03%, 20.69%, 17.24%. The organs affected were the urethra in 58.62%, the bladder, 37.93%, the prostate 3.45%. Associated non-urological lesions present in 68.96% (n=20) were dominated by intestinal lesions and pelvic fractures. Firearm injuries to the lower urinary tract are rare despite the context of the security crisis. They affect young men, are mostly linked to intercommunal violence, and are dominated by urethral and bladder injuries.

Young female traders’ quest for viability in Zimbabwe's politicised urban spaces

ABSTRACT This article analyses the viability struggles of young female traders in Harare, Zimbabwe. It makes a conceptual contribution to debates about viability, which captures how young people connect and pursue aims across diverse life domains (referred to as ‘thinking and acting across’), by addressing gender and generational power dynamics. The article demonstrates how young female traders in Harare are thinking and acting across the domains of work and politics in a context of urban authoritarianism, by negotiating the challenging economic conditions and ruling party-aligned brokers that dominate the urban spaces in which they sell their wares. Based on over two years of qualitative research, which continued during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study shows how gendered expectations around young women's voice and presentation in public affairs shapes the agency of female second-hand clothes traders. The wider context of economic crisis, exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, deepened the precarity of the traders, requiring young women to defy lockdown measures. However, their agency with respect to challenging (‘acting against’) law enforcement and political brokers remained constrained. We argue that gendered power dynamics intersect with notions of youth in the Zimbabwean context and infuse authoritarian politics, creating attempts at viability shaped by risk calculation.

Trust, pandemic and communication: an analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic from an autopoietic systems perspective

PurposeThis article seeks to discuss trust within the context of public health crises using an autopoietic systems perspective that positions communication as one of its core concepts. This article will explore trust studies conducted during public health crises in this Millennium (from SARS to COVID-19 pandemics), including their problems; briefly summarize Luhmann's concept of Vertrauen; and use this concept to analyze trust issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis article will explore trust studies conducted during public health crises from SARS to COVID-19 pandemics, including their problems. The perspective used is an explication of Niklas Luhmann's theory regarding Vertrauen which was derived as a framework for reading empirical facts on trust issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research design and exploration stages were inspired by the theory of autopoiesis systems by Niklas Luhmann.FindingsFrom a systems perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extraordinary complexity of the linkages between social systems. Trust will continue to evolve dynamically as new variants emerge in society. Consequently, the pandemic has provided the momentum necessary for maximally exploring the concept of trust. Indonesia thus experienced significant obstacles when making and implementing disaster mitigation policies. Owing to the lack of a trust system, greater emphasis was given to control and power. There has been little preparedness to create and reinforce public trust, and this in turn has stifled efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.Originality/valueThis study of trust, communication and public health crises has provided space to reflect on the development of trust within the social system. This study shows that trust can prove to be a very important factor in resolving a crisis. However, the complexity of the interrelationships of the social system can affect the quality of trust. The context of Indonesia's social system which is very complex due to population density and the dynamics of the development of its social system which is very diverse as an archipelagic country has contributed to the originality of the study of trust in times of crisis in a growing contemporary society.

THE EXPERIENCE OF MOTHERING IN MOTHERS OF PRETERM BABIES HOSPITALIZED IN A NEONATAL UNIT

A baby is considered preterm when it is born before 37 completed weeks of gestation, and it is necessary to admit it to a Neonatal Unit (NU) after birth. In addition to breaking with the fantasy of the imaginary baby, prematurity involves an anticipation of the process of recognizing oneself as a mother. This context of crisis provides a space of difficult elaboration around the experience of having a baby who was born prematurely and who is admitted to a hospital, bringing repercussions for the mother-infant relationship and for his psychic constitution. This work aims to investigate the experience of mothers of preterm babies admitted to the UN, based on Psychoanalysis. This is an integrative review study based on publications found in the Scielo, PePsic, LILACS and Redalyc databases in the last 10 years. The descriptors Prematurity, Psychoanalysis, Maternity and Neonatal ICU were used. 14 articles were selected for review of 67 identified general publications. It was found that the experience of mothers of preterm babies admitted to the NU is permeated by feelings of guilt, fear, frustration and ambivalence. The premature baby birth it is considered a risk factor for bonding, but it does not prevent mothers from finding strategies to exercise their role and bond. It is important to support the multidisciplinary team in the mothers' coping process and the psychologist's work in providing a listening space, allowing parents to talk about the experience and elaborate a place of subject for this baby.

Health Financing Options for Sri Lanka: What, and Why?

The purpose of this paper is to renew and stimulate the national discourse on how to further Sri Lanka's aspirational goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC [1]) in line with the global sustainable development goals (SDG) to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. After a brief status update about UHC in Sri Lanka, the paper focuses on the financing function, justified on the basis of its central role in addressing the problems confronting the health system, in terms of its inherent inefficiencies as well as the specific context of the economic crisis which the country is currently facing. The paper argues for a well-managed prepaid, pooled health financing mechanism (such as the current tax-based system or social health insurance schemes), incorporating strategic purchasing approaches, leveraging the private sector (both for-profit and non-profit), in order to increase efficiency, equity and accountability by separating the financing and purchasing functions from service delivery.

Health financing options for Sri Lanka

The purpose of this paper is to renew and stimulate the national discourse on how to further Sri Lanka’s aspirational goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage(UHC [1]) in line with the global sustainable development goals (SDG) to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. After a brief status update about UHC in Sri Lanka, the paper focuses on the financing function, justified on the basis of its central role in addressing the problems confronting the health system, in terms of its inherent inefficiencies as well as the specific context of the economic crisis which the country is currently facing. The paper argues for a well-managed prepaid, pooled health financing mechanism (such as the current tax-based system or social health insurance schemes), incorporating strategic purchasing approaches, leveraging the private sector (both for-profit and non-profit), in order to increase efficiency, equity and accountability by separating the financing and purchasing functions from service delivery.

Development and validation of the Socioeconomic Status Composite Scale (SES-C).

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a critical multifactorial determinant of health and plays a significant role in shaping an individual's health outcomes. While a composite scale has been proposed to measure SES in children, to our knowledge, limited composite scales were developed for adults in different contexts, highlighting the need for a comprehensive and valid SES measure to elucidate the relationship between SES and health in this population. This study aimed to develop and validate a composite scale that measures the socioeconomic status in Lebanon and assess its correlates in a socioeconomic crisis context. An online study was carried out between October and November 2022 across all Lebanese regions. Snowball sampling was used to enroll 448 adults living in Lebanon through a questionnaire created on Google Forms and shared by WhatsApp to a first sample from all geographic areas. The developed composite scale (SES-C) was found to be reliable and valid. It was based on several aspects of socioeconomic status, i.e., participant education level, family head education level, perceived social class, not being in debt, not receiving financial help, crowding index, participant work status, family head work status, monthly household income, and financial well-being. Furthermore, high SES was significantly associated with married status, older age, alcohol consumption, the absence of chronic disease, easy access to healthcare, private insurance coverage, and the number of rooms in the house in the bivariate analysis. In the multivariable analysis, high SES was significantly associated with age (ORa-1.13; p = 0.011) and easy access to healthcare (ORa = 7.81; p = 0.001) and inversely associated with chronic disease (ORa = 0.17; p = 0.002). Similar results with lower magnitude were found for moderate SES. The study successfully developed and validated a composite scale (SES-C) for measuring the socioeconomic status in Lebanon, taking into account the complexities of the Lebanese context. The scale was found to be reliable and valid, and its results showed significant correlations with various factors such as older age, lower risk of chronic disease, and easy access to healthcare.

AI-driven disinformation: a framework for organizational preparation and response

PurposeDisinformation, false information designed with the intention to mislead, can significantly damage organizational operation and reputation, interfering with communication and relationship management in a wide breadth of risk and crisis contexts. Modern digital platforms and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), introduce novel risks in crisis management (Guthrie and Rich, 2022). Disinformation literature in security and computer science has assessed how previously introduced technologies have affected disinformation, demanding a systematic and coordinated approach for sustainable counter-disinformation efforts. However, there is a lack of theory-driven, evidence-based research and practice in public relations that advises how organizations can effectively and proactively manage risks and crises driven by AI (Guthrie and Rich, 2022).Design/methodology/approachAs a first step in closing this research-practice gap, the authors first synthesize theoretical and technical literature characterizing the effects of AI on disinformation. Upon this review, the authors propose a conceptual framework for disinformation response in the corporate sector that assesses (1) technologies affecting disinformation attacks and counterattacks and (2) how organizations can proactively prepare and equip communication teams to better protect businesses and stakeholders.FindingsThis research illustrates that future disinformation response efforts will not be able to rely solely on detection strategies, as AI-created content quality becomes more and more convincing (and ultimately, indistinguishable), and that future disinformation management efforts will need to rely on content influence rather than volume (due to emerging capabilities for automated production of disinformation). Built upon these fundamental, literature-driven characteristics, the framework provides organizations actor-level and content-level perspectives for influence and discusses their implications for disinformation management.Originality/valueThis research provides a theoretical basis and practitioner insights by anticipating how AI technologies will impact corporate disinformation attacks and outlining how companies can respond. The proposed framework provides a theory-driven, practical approach for effective, proactive disinformation management systems with the capacity and agility to detect risks and mitigate crises driven by evolving AI technologies. Together, this framework and the discussed strategies offer great value to forward-looking disinformation management efforts. Subsequent research can build upon this framework as AI technologies are deployed in disinformation campaigns, and practitioners can leverage this framework in the development of counter-disinformation efforts.

Responsibilization during uncontrollable events: understanding how consumers assign and accept responsibility for service employee welfare

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study how individuals assess responsibility during an uncontrollable event requiring collective action, using crises affecting service workers as contexts. Specifically, the authors examine what parties consumers hold responsible for ensuring service worker welfare following an uncontrollable event and determine what factors make customers more open to accepting responsibility for ensuring worker welfare themselves. Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed a nationally representative sample of US consumers regarding their attitudes toward protecting service workers during COVID-19 and used regression analysis to identify factors that predict attributions of responsibility to customers. The authors also conducted an experiment (using a new crisis context) to determine whether certain key factors impact customer perceptions of their own responsibility for helping employees during an uncontrollable event. Findings The survey results show US consumers hold firms most responsible for worker welfare, followed by customers and, finally, government. When examining factors that drive attributions of responsibility for customers, perceptions of how sincere firms are in their efforts to help employees predict higher responsibility attributions, and experimental results confirm that higher perceived firm sincerity increases consumers’ own sense of responsibility toward workers. Social implications This research identifies factors that affect consumer support for efforts to help service employees and collective action problems more generally. Originality/value This research highlights an under-studied crisis context – uncontrollable events that require collective action – and shows how consumers make assessments about their own responsibility (in addition to the responsibility of the service firm) in these contexts.

Developing a theory of social art therapy: Insights from the context of crisis

During the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, art therapists used new methods, materials, and techniques to help address the needs of community members. The practices that emerged from art therapy while adjusting to the pandemic, created new perspectives and ways to re-theorize and re-energize community art therapy engagement. As the acute stage of the pandemic passes, the art therapy profession can take this opportunity to pause and explore the new practice-based knowledge and techniques developed “on the ground” during the acute crisis and canonize them by connecting practice to the growing body of theory on social art therapy. This paper will help conceptualize, articulate, and thus demystify these developments, anchoring them to social theories of community. This paper will integrate setting, role of art, role of art therapists, ethical considerations, and evaluation, into social theories, describing specific features of a new theory of social art therapy in the context of community crises.

After flight. Visions from London Heathrow

This paper uses creative methodologies to explore the future of relations between art and flight. Responding to the conditions of the pandemic, I take Heathrow Airport, which is near my home, as an observable and symbolic landscape inflected with art’s mobilities but also a window onto changing times. I draw on material gathered within the constraints of the lockdown walk – diary notes, photographs, correspondence – as well as theoretical framings that include planetary social thought, evidentiary forms of materialism and aesthetic reflections on the modern ruin. I ask: what axioms and assumptions about art and flight are unsettled by this landscape? What is revealed about relations between art and the planetary? And what possible futures does it offer artists striving to square internationalism with ecological consciousness?In the context of a climate crisis, the deserted airport is suggestive of a catastrophic future that reads as an allegory of fossil fuel dependence. Yet the complexity of disentangling art from flight, an inherently carbon hungry mode of transport, should not be underestimated – it will need to negotiate not just the terrain of environmental impact but also the artistic identities, exhibition models and curatorial personas that have flourished under the conditions of cheap flight.

COVID-19 and sexual violence against women: A qualitative study about young people and professionals' perspectives in Spain.

There is an increasing awareness of the magnitude of different forms of sexual violence (SV), especially in relation to youth. The COVID-19 pandemic has also had a negative impact on different forms of violence against women. In this study, we aim to analyse SV in the COVID-19 lockdown among young people and SV-related services from the perspective of professionals and young people from different sectors in Spain with responsibilities in attending SV and other forms of violence against women-related. A qualitative content analysis was performed on semi-structured interviews with 23 women and men aged 18 to 24 and 15 professionals working with youth and/or in violence against women or sexual violence related services. The sample was from northern, eastern and central regions of Spain. According to the professionals' experience, the COVID-19 lockdown lessened their ability to work on violence prevention. Both informants perceived that sexual violence had decreased in public spaces whereas it increased in digital ones and noticed the silence surrounding violent situations had deepened. However, they differed regarding its impact on sexual violence within intimate partners, mainly due to the lack of awareness of this problem among young men. In regard to violence against women and sexual violence, our results highlight the need to develop protocols for action and improve resource accessibility in crisis contexts.

Incorporating scarcity into footprints reveals diverse supply chain hotspots for global fossil fuel management

In the current context of energy and geopolitical crises, the sustainable supply and use of energy play a critical role in responding to climate change and the global transformation towards a low-carbon economy. The supply-chain risks of fossil fuels (i.e., raw coal, crude oil, and natural gas) are closely linked to sustainable production and consumption, emphasized by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the impacts of scarcity or endowment of fossil fuels on the global scale remain unknown, which hinders sustainable fossil fuel management from a global perspective. This study analyses the scarcity-weighted fossil fuel extractions (i.e., supply side) and footprints (i.e., demand side) of nations. It identifies the hidden supply-chain risks that cannot be revealed when focusing on supply or demand itself (e.g., France, Norway, and Ecuador from the supply side, and France, Germany, and Norway from the demand side). Moreover, the net trade (= import-export) flows of embodied fossil fuels of certain nations (e.g., France, Australia, and Russia) have even reversed. The novel findings of this study demonstrate the importance of incorporating scarcity footprint into the SDG framework to reveal the hidden supply-chain risks. They could inform more explicit and targeted implications for global sustainable fossil fuel management. Under the background of complex international energy trade relations, nations with high risks should accelerate their energy transitions and strengthen international cooperation from both supply and demand sides.

Meaning of Work in Crisis Contexts

Meaning of Work in Crisis Contexts

Blurring Context and One-Sided: Kompas.com in Framing the West Papua Crisis

In September 2021, the conflict between West Papuan separatist groups and the Indonesian National Army (TNI) heated up. Kompas.com, one of Indonesia's media with the most extensive readership, contributes significantly to public understanding and perception of the West Papua crisis. This study aims to examine how Kompas.com frames the West Papua crisis on 7-30 September 2021. Framing analysis examines three important aspects of news framing: crisis frames, thematic and episodic frames, and news sources. The news regarding the West Papua crisis on 7-30 September 2020 was only filled with three frames: conflict, attribution of responsibility, and human interest. Kompas.com has tried to provide space for parties with a moderate position in the conflict, such as the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), Komnas HAM (National Commission on Human Rights), and Kontras (The Commission for Disappeared and Victims of Violence). However, in general, the news is still very much dominated by news sources from the Indonesian government and the military and not using enough thematic frames. Kompas.com needs to be more comprehensive to report on the crisis in West Papua during the reporting period of 7-30 September 2020. Kompas.com also does not elaborate that the Free Papua movement is plural and fragmentary, with a spectrum of violent movements to peace movements. The conclusion of this study, Kompas.com tends to blur the context of the West Papua crisis, which risks limiting and directing public understanding of the West Papua crisis to exist within the government's frame.