Prolonged Crisis Research Articles

PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF DEFINING LIFE TASKS IN WARTIME

The study is devoted to the specifics of defining life tasks in conditions of war and personal resources that help in solving them. It was established that the most common life tasks, which were determined by the respondents turned out to be: self-education, education, development, self-development, and self-improvement. Material things and maintaining work were no less important, as well as helping others in various ways and in various spheres of life. In the conditions of the war tasks that ensure the preservation of the psychological state, mental health, and survival in the physical sense, as well as the preservation of family relationships and mutual support in the family, turned out to be significant. It was established that the factors that help in solving the specified tasks that respondents singled out are the following: personal traits and qualities, the main of which are perseverance, stress resistance, responsibility, indomitability, and self-confidence; support of surrounding; a sense of security and finding a resource in various ways of activity. It was also revealed that the respondents are aware of existing problems and obstacles preventing the solution of certain life tasks. A significant part of the respondents identified the war that lasts on the territory of our state and the associated with the war situation of uncertainty, feeling of physical danger and threat to life, presence of constant stress, syndrome of delayed life, evacuation abroad, uncertainty in future and instability as the main factor. As a result of empirical research, it was also determined bright, in respondents’ opinion, life events affected the personality of the researched. The fourth part of the respondents described the beginning of the war and events related to its continuation as a traumatic situation that affected their personalities. A significant part of the respondents identified events in which the evacuation process is shown, as well as their own return and return of relatives and friends to the country or to their places. The sixth part of the respondents avoided answering this question. We assume that this is a manifestation of protective mechanisms in a prolonged crisis situation. However, this assumption requires further research.

"Exceptionally challenging time for all of us": Qualitative study of the COVID-19 experiences of partners of diplomatic personnel.

Although the romantic partners of diplomatic personnel frequently accompany their spouses to overseas postings and face the challenges of having to adjust to new cultures and separation from friends and family, they have rarely been the focus of academic research. This study explores the lived experiences of the partners/spouses of diplomatic personnel from the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Partners of FCDO staff took part in semi-structured interviews about how COVID-19 had affected their lives and their perceptions of the organisation's response to the pandemic. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Eleven partners of FCDO staff took part, who between them had lived in 14 different countries during the pandemic. The analysis identified six key themes: deployment-specific challenges such as travel restrictions, quarantine and evacuation; children; impacts of the pandemic including financial and psychological; perceptions of the organisational response to COVID-19; support and help-seeking; and suggestions for the future. Overall participants reported experiencing a number of challenges, many of which left them feeling powerless and not in control of their own lives. Participants frequently described a lack of clarity around policies and support. Social support appeared to be valuable, but many participants wanted more support from the organisation and from informal networks. Diplomatic (and similar) organisations could enhance the wellbeing of the partners of their staff through improved communication and support. Keeping families informed about restrictions, requirements, policies and available help during a crisis, and reaching out to them to offer advice and support, would likely be beneficial. It is important that lessons are learned from the COVID-19 crisis in order for organisations to be able to support their employees and families if another prolonged crisis were to occur.

Assistance in identifying the potential of the Kembang Kuning tourist village, Cepogo District, Boyolali

Tourism is one of the pillars of the local economy in Indonesian society, and as such, this sector should receive special attention to maintain and develop it. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant economic disruption, leading to a prolonged crisis. Kembang Kuning Village in Boyolali is an example of a tourism industry that possesses natural and cultural resources, which could serve as capital to establish a tourist village but has been hindered by the pandemic. This mentoring activity aims to revitalize tourist villages by identifying their potential. The service method includes traning and education of SWOT analysis. The results of the service demonstrate that there are strategies that Kembang Kuning Village can implement to not only restore local residents' income from the tourism sector but also enhance the quality of the existing tourist villages.

Driven by crises: Price integration on the grain market in late medieval Flanders

AbstractAt the centre of the debate on pre‐industrial economic growth is the study of market integration, a topic that has increasingly been the focus of intense scientific interest in recent decades. However, this has remained limited to the early modern and modern periods, mainly due to the availability of relevant data. New grain price series have been constructed for several Flemish cities dating back to the early fourteenth century. As one of the most populated regions in the late Middle Ages, the case of Flanders shows that the extraordinary sequence of price shocks in the mid‐fourteenth century had a positive impact on the degree of price integration in the grain market. The Flemish grain market functioned better in times of crisis, but caused prices to rise steadily across the entire integrated system during the prolonged crisis period. Whereas many studies have labelled the late Middle Ages – particularly the fifteenth century – as an age of economic contraction with more isolated trade networks, this study shows that Flanders remained a highly economically integrated region.

Attributing blame: how political parties in Germany leverage cooperative federalism

This study investigates how political parties used the federal structure of government for discursive blame attribution strategies in parliamentary debates during the Covid-19 crisis. The analysis focuses on the German case which is considered an embodiment of cooperative federalism. Largely intertwined responsibilities and joint decision making provide incentives for self-serving blame attribution strategies. The empirical investigation includes a qualitative content analysis of 212 parliamentary debates in the Bundestag and the 16 state parliaments. Overall, 2067 statements were manually coded and integrated into a novel dataset. The data reveal a more diverse discursive toolkit of blame attribution strategies than commonly conceptualised. The study demonstrates that parties, especially when they are involved in intergovernmental bodies and coalition governments, resort to ‘softer’ forms of blaming. The vertical integration of the party system also creates an effective blame barrier, containing self-serving strategies even during the prolonged crisis and several election campaigns.

Going native? How crypto technology may help regulators

The crypto industry suffered a prolonged crisis in 2022. It is now at a turning point, as lawmakers around the world deploy new statutes aimed at curtailing endemic fraud, inadequate risk management, and bad governance. This is a net positive for the ecosystem – without legal certainty, it cannot flourish. In this paper, I argue that some crypto-native constructs may usefully complement traditional frameworks in the regulation of both crypto itself and the broader financial system. Protected environments, such as regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs, should be leveraged to foster creative cooperation between authorities and the crypto industry.

The Process of Marketisation and Economic Realities in the DPRK

ABSTRACT This article analyses the pattern and degree of marketisation in the DPRK by drawing on sources from within that society. In doing so it creates a point of departure from most conventional analyses of the DPRK economy, which prioritise defector accounts. The conventional view, informed by these accounts, is that jangmadang (quasi-free markets) have been created by ordinary people to meet their basic needs. In this view, ‘marketisation from below’ started when the Public Distribution System broke down due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, upon which the DPRK economy had depended. It is also claimed that as the economy has failed to recover from its prolonged crisis, the State has become dependent upon these markets. However, a careful review of materials produced inside the DPRK indicates that marketisation started ‘from above’ in the early 1980s, with Kim Il Sung’s directives to assuage the chronic shortages of consumer goods. As such, this article contends that marketisation in the DPRK began and has proceeded in accordance with the State’s control and influence. The country’s complete closure of its borders to prevent COVID-19 in the early 2020s confirmed that markets play only a limited role in DPRK society.

Adaptasi Tugas Seorang Akuntan dalam Era Pemulihan Ekonomi di Masa Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far-reaching impact on various economic sectors around the world. Accountants, as key players in the financial and business systems, face significant challenges in dealing with the profound changes taking place in the global economy. This study aims to investigate the adaptation of tasks performed by an accountant during the economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focuses on the role of accountants in assisting companies, organizations and their clients to deal with the challenges and opportunities faced due to prolonged crisis situations. Through qualitative analysis and a review of the literature, this study identified a number of adaptation strategies adopted by accountants to overcome the challenges faced during the economic recovery during the pandemic. The three key findings are flexibility, technology and financial strategy. First, flexibility is an important quality that must be possessed by an accountant. The pandemic has caused rapid and unpredictable fluctuations in business situations, and accountants must be able to quickly adjust to these changes. The ability to make plans and change them according to changes in the environment is the key to surviving and adapting to uncertain circumstances. Second, technology has become an important tool in adapting accountants' duties during a pandemic. The use of high-tech accounting systems, financial applications, and virtual collaboration tools has become imperative for accountants to remain productive and efficient while working remotely. Technology also plays an important role in providing real-time access to financial data, which enables accountants to make informed and accurate decisions. Third, a smart financial strategy is key in helping companies and clients face the challenges of economic recovery. The accountant should act as a trusted financial advisor, providing in-depth insight into short and long term financial planning and assisting in identifying new opportunities for business growth. In addition, accountants must be able to develop effective risk management strategies, anticipate potential financial problems, and provide timely solutions.

Crisis Management of Enterprises and Post-War Reconstruction in Ukraine

"It has been proven that the anti-crisis management program can determine the presence of three enterprise development systems that determine the choice of directions for anti-crisis management: “conditionally stable system,” in which passive anti-crisis management is sufficient, “system with the manifestation of crisis phenomena,” and “general crisis system,” which requires the application of active anti-crisis measures. The goals of enterprise anti-crisis management vary depending on the type of financial system of the enterprise. Thus, anti-crisis management under the conditionally stable system aims to diagnose the indicators of enterprise activity for timely detection of manifestations of crisis phenomena. In the system expressing crisis phenomena, anti-crisis management aims to localize detected crises, overcome their negative impact, and restore pre-crisis indicators. The goal of anti-crisis management under the general crisis system is to manage the enterprise in conditions of prolonged crisis (stagnation). Each model of anti-crisis management has corresponding stages, the implementation of which is aimed at minimizing the negative impact of crisis phenomena on the enterprise’s activity. The methods of anti-crisis management during the war have been systematized. The methods of anti-crisis management can be attributed to the entire set of methodological tools that include a complex of measures from pre-crisis diagnosis to methods of its elimination and overcoming. Based on the essential characteristics and the need to decide on applying anti-crisis methods at each stage of the enterprise’s life cycle, their consideration from the perspective of diagnostic and crisis management methods is envisaged. Based on the application of a methodological approach to the formation of the system of forecasting anti-crisis management measures at the enterprise, the use of an algorithm for anti-crisis management to choose the direction of anti-crisis management at enterprises (passive or active) has been proposed."

Travelers’ Coping Strategies in the Backdrop of Revenge Tourism

The recent COVID-19 pandemic was a large-scale, prolonged crisis for the tourism industry. However, there has been an unprecedented surge in travel in the post-pandemic period. This study explores the motivation and coping strategies employed by travelers in the post-pandemic period. A multi-stage qualitative study was undertaken using three waves of data collection with travelers who engaged in revenge tourism in the post-pandemic period. Findings revealed that disengagement was the main motivation to travel during this period. Three coping strategies were employed by travelers to overcome the crisis—engaging in growth, seeking strength, and hope and cautious optimism. Coping strategies employed by travelers enabled them to overcome the tensions experienced during the pandemic lockdown. These findings present a clear delineation of how travelers recover from the adversities of a pandemic crisis to travel again in its aftermath, thus contributing significantly to the tourism literature.

Destination Marketing and Domestic Tourist Satisfaction: The Intervening Effect of Customer-Based Destination Brand Equity

A mediation model of the interplay between customer-based destination brand equity and destination marketing in domestic tourists’ satisfaction during a prolonged crisis is presented. The cross-sectional deductive study analyses data from n = 400 South African domestic tourists. The findings clarify destination marketing’s direct positive effect on customer-based destination brand equity and domestic tourist satisfaction. Significantly, customer-based destination brand equity is an explanatory mechanism in destination marketing’s influence on domestic tourists’ satisfaction. This study contributes to the burgeoning but still limited knowledge of the role of destination marketing and destination-oriented brand equity in domestic tourists’ responsive behavior amid crises.

How did the Covid-19 pandemic affect restaurant tipping?

ABSTRACT The results of three national surveys indicate that the Covid years 2021 and 2022 were associated with a decreased frequency or likelihood of restaurant tipping but an increased size of those tips left. These findings combine with previous research to suggest that tipping remains a viable compensation system even during prolonged crises. The Covid effect on tipping is not moderated by factors that would be expected if it were due to enhanced social-pressure, altruism, reciprocity, or cost considerations. Thus, more research is needed to fully understand the processes underlying the effects of the pandemic on tipping.

Kerentanan Pariwisata dan responnya: Studi Kasus Covid 19 di Kawasan Wisata Kaliurang

This study seeks to understand the impact of the tourism crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Kaliurang Tourism Area and the emerging vulnerabilities for tourism actors who make tourism their sole livelihood. To understand these conditions, pre-eliminary research was carried out as part of a series of research on tourism and COVID-19. This research was conducted by using qualitative methods from April to October 2021. The results of this pre-eliminary research clearly show that tourism actors in Kaliurang are experiencing a slump due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism, which is the main source of living, is in fact very vulnerable to a prolonged crisis. The impacts and risks that arise in Kaliurang are clearly seen in the economic and socio-cultural sectors. As an effort to survive the tourism actors in Kaliurang are trying to respond to this condition individually and in groups. However, the responses that arise are not only positive but also negative, such as friction and conflict.

Practices and Challenges of Government Public Accountability During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Response of the British Government

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, government response and accountability have been widely discussed by researchers. This research explores and evaluates the government’s response to the crisis and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on accountability. This is achieved by discussing the concept of accountability from the perspective of institutional theory. This study uses unstructured literature review methods and a single case study designed with qualitative research methods. The data comes from secondary data (such as British public sector social media, websites, and published reports). It analyses the dynamics of public accountability in the UK during the pandemic. This research shows that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional public accountability system will be challenged, and the government has made some failed responses. At the same time, national audit institutions and researchers should consider exploring a new accountability system to improve accountability efficiency, which will help increase public participation and government transparency, and combat corruption in prolonged crises. Through the reflection on the crisis period, this study strengthens the understanding of accountability in the crisis period, and puts forward some suggestions to improve accountability, which can enlighten decision-makers on how to arrange public accountability in the future.

Mutual Aid Praxis Aligns Principles and Practice in Grassroots COVID-19 Responses Across the US.

COVID-19 elicited a rapid emergence of new mutual aid networks in the US, but the practices of these networks are understudied. Using qualitative methods, we explored the empirical ethics guiding US-based mutual aid networks' activities, and assessed the alignment between principles and practices as networks mobilized to meet community needs during 2020-21. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 mutual aid group organizers and supplemented these with secondary source materials on mutual aid activities and participant observation of mutual aid organizing efforts. We analyzed participants' practices in relation to key mutual aid principles as defined in the literature: 1) solidarity not charity; 2) non-hierarchical organizational structures; 3) equity in decision-making; and 4) political engagement. Our data also yielded a fifth principle, "mutuality," essential to networks' approaches but distinct from anarchist conceptions of mutualism. While mutual aid networks were heavily invested in these ethical principles, they struggled to achieve them in practice. These findings underscore the importance of mutual aid praxis as an intersection between ethical principles and practices, and the challenges that contemporary, and often new, mutual aid networks responding to COVID-19 face in developing praxis during a period of prolonged crisis. We develop a theory-of-change model that illuminates both the opportunities and the potential pitfalls of mutual aid work in the context of structural inequities, and shows how communities can achieve justice-oriented mutual aid praxis in current and future crises.

Arguments regarding the introduction of mandatory mediation in certain categories of disputes

In the Republic of Moldova, we believe that the institution of mandatory mediation in certain categories of disputes could be given a chance of success because, in the current crisis that European states are going through due to the armed conflict in Ukraine, it is justified, all the more, for it to it is given a real chance to prove itself, this time from the position of compulsory mediation for a series of minor disputes carried out by mediators and not by other legal professionals. In our opinion, the obligation of mediation can be instituted in all categories of disputes listed in art. 25-30 of the mediation law, but in order to help the Moldovan society through the institution of mediation to overcome these prolonged crises, we propose the legislator to be inspired by the experience of the Italian legislator who found a way to penetrate the national and European legislation.

The Digitalisation of European Union Procedures: A New Impetus Following a Time of Prolonged Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily brought national and cross-border procedures to a standstill. Prior to the pandemic, the use of information and communication technology in court procedures was mostly voluntary and seldom used; although various developments were contemplated, they were slow to be financed and implemented. The pandemic and associated limitations gave digitalisation of procedures, including at the European Union (EU) level, a new impetus and increased authorities’ and professionals’ openness towards technology, including in cross-border judicial cooperation. The measures adopted at the time of writing focus on aspects such as communication between competent national authorities in taking of evidence and service of documents. These are expected to soon be extended to all other EU private international law instruments. In cross-border claims, e-CODEX will be the decentralised information technology system used in this process of facilitating access to justice with digital support. The aim is for identification and certifications of e-signatures and e-identities in this digital environment to be based on the eIDAS Regulation. While all these are welcome developments for facilitating and speeding up access to justice, this paper points out that the process still requires some years for its full implementation and may be exposed to various risks, complexities and challenges. Consequently, the process will not put an end to the EU fragmentation but will work around national and EU realities.

Decomposing wealth inequalities in the wake of the Greek debt crisis

While Greece has been the epicentre of economic research on many dimensions after its deep and prolonged crisis, wealth inequalities remain understudied. Our paper explores the levels, distribution, composition, and dynamics of household wealth in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. We find large asymmetries in the allocation of wealth in Greece: the richest 1% of the population holds roughly as much wealth as the poorest 50%, while the richest 10% holds about four times the wealth of the poorest 50%. In addition, wealth inequality in Greece has increased between 2009 and 2017. At the same time, both average and median wealth shrunk by one third, while the share of wealth-poor and hand-to-mouth households increased by about 20%. Our factor inequality decompositions suggest that, despite being relatively evenly distributed, real wealth holdings caused much of the increasing trends in wealth disparities in the country. Conversely, while highly unequally distributed themselves, financial assets played an insignificant role in the wealth dynamics. The findings of the paper carry implications for the design of appropriate policies aiming to increase household resilience and underline the role of asymmetries in real and financial asset holdings for the effectiveness of economic policies.

Monitoring and Early Warning of SMEs’ Shutdown Risk under the Impact of Global Pandemic Shock

The COVID-19 outbreak devastated business operations and the world economy, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With limited capital, poorer risk tolerance, and difficulty in withstanding prolonged crises, SMEs are more vulnerable to pandemics and face a higher risk of shutdown. This research sought to establish a model response to shutdown risk by investigating two questions: How do you measure SMEs’ shutdown risk due to pandemics? How do SMEs reduce shutdown risk? To the best of our knowledge, existing studies only analyzed the impact of the pandemic on SMEs through statistical surveys and trivial recommendations. Particularly, there is no case study focusing on an elaboration of SMEs’ shutdown risk. We developed a model to reduce cognitive uncertainty and differences in opinion among experts on COVID-19. The model was built by integrating the improved Dempster’s rule of combination and a Bayesian network, where the former is based on the method of weight assignment and matrix analysis. The model was first applied to a representative SME with basic characteristics for survival analysis during the pandemic. The results show that this SME has a probability of 79% on a lower risk of shutdown, 15% on a medium risk of shutdown, and 6% of high risk of shutdown. SMEs solving the capital chain problem and changing external conditions such as market demand are more difficult during a pandemic. Based on the counterfactual elaboration of the inferred results, the probability of occurrence of each risk factor was obtained by simulating the interventions. The most likely causal chain analysis based on counterfactual elaboration revealed that it is simpler to solve employee health problems. For the SMEs in the study, this approach can reduce the probability of being at high risk of shutdown by 16%. The results of the model are consistent with those identified by the SME respondents, which validates the model.

Tree Rings Hint at the Fall of the Hittite Empire

The Bronze Age civilization adapted to changes in climate but suffered during a prolonged crisis.