Times Of Crisis Research Articles

A materialist reconsideration of international peace practice and its human and non-human constituents

Abstract The international community's sobering track record of sustainably reducing the number of armed conflicts worldwide, as well as the increasing involvement of non-human complexities in times of climate crisis suggest that current approaches to foster peace are too narrow and inflexible. So far, demands and calls for more flexible and adaptive peace practice made by policy-makers and researchers have not led to a related paradigm shift. In order to contribute to such a change of practice, this article advances a speculative analytical attempt that seeks to conceptually uncover new modes of engaging with the world for the purpose of peace. It builds on Baruch Spinoza's materialism and describes peace as intimately interrelated with the issue of political community. Following Spinoza, the article reconsiders the imaginary of political community as something that is constantly being rearticulated by a contingent complexity of human and non-human actors, and thus transcends the geographic scope of its formal borders as well as its epistemic scope across power hierarchies. Finally, the article introduces the human-non-human multitude as political subject that is able to detect and interpret the constituents of a political community, and therefore to maintain and sustain peace.

Changes in well-being among socially isolated older people during the COVID-19 pandemic: An outcome-wide analysis

Older adults experienced major changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing restrictions, and it might be expected that those who were already socially isolated before the pandemic were particularly vulnerable. We apply an outcome-wide longitudinal design on 4,636 participants (mean age 66.8 y) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, observed in 2018/19 and early (June/July 2020) and later (November/December 2020) in the pandemic. Social isolation is defined using an index including marital status, social contact, and social participation in 2018/19. Using mixed models, we compare changes in well-being, health, health behaviors, financial well-being, and Internet use, between isolated and nonisolated participants. From before to during the pandemic, isolated participants (29%) experienced smaller declines in life satisfaction and quality of life and a smaller increase in loneliness. They showed greater declines in smoking and physical activity and were more likely to remain worried about their future financial situation. They also did not change in their likelihood of regular Internet use, contrasting with nonisolated participants who increased in this regard. The groups followed a similar trend for general health and sleep quality (no change), depression and anxiety (increase), and expectations of future financial difficulties (decrease). Although isolated older adults generally show poorer outcomes than their socially connected counterparts, they were somewhat protected during the pandemic on some fronts. Our findings highlight the need to continually care for isolated older adults but also to be attentive in times of unexpected crises to those experiencing extreme changes related to necessary policy responses.

“I Cannot Bring A Child Into This World”: Hearing And Writing I Poems With BirthStrike Testimonials

BirthStrike for Climate was a UK-based movement whose members “striked” against having children, to demonstrate the desperate need for political action on climate change. In this article, I engage with the Listening Guide (Gilligan & Eddy, 2017) to hear, trace and construct “I poems” with BirthStrike members’ testimonial statements, which were published online between 2019-2020. My analysis focusses on how BirthStrike stories articulate the psychosocial impacts of climate change, particularly in relation to questions about having (and not having) children in times of environmental and social crises. I provide an iteration of how the Listening Guide can be applied to non-spoken texts. As I will show, even in the absence of research participants, the listening process for me was a relational encounter: the stories moved me, stirring up strong affective resonances which in turn informed my hearing and writing process. My analysis is therefore an effort to give access to the affective flow I felt in response to the stories, as a process of both listening and being called to respond from an intersubjective location.

The socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on selected mining companies in Limpopo Province, South Africa

This study explores the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic on mining value chains, using a mixed-methods approach. A thematic analysis, based on open-ended survey questions and interviews, was performed to determine the impacts on value chains and employee welfare and determine the coping mechanisms. The survey data, gathered from 408 respondents in Limpopo Province of South Africa, provided quantitative information. Bivariate statistical analysis was used to discern variations in responses between various occupational groups. The results indicate differentiated impacts among occupational groups, including loss of revenue, disruptions of the value chain, and welfare disruptions. Despite these challenges, the study found that some new safety measures helped the mining industry better handle the impacts of COVID-19. In conclusion, the study highlights the importance of taking proactive steps to make the mining industry more resilient. It emphasises the need for support, especially for communities that are vulnerable in times of crisis. The findings suggest that, moving forward, the mining industry should be prepared for future challenges by adopting innovative solutions and ensuring the well-being of its workers.

Teachers' Perceptions of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Implementation of an Evidence-based HIV Prevention Program in the Bahamas.

Information on how school-based programs is implemented and sustained during crises is limited. In this study, we assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the implementation of a HIV prevention intervention in The Bahamas. Data were collected from 139 Grade 6 teachers in 2021-2022. Teachers attended virtual training and received implementation monitoring from coordinators. On average, teachers taught 26.4 (SD = 9.2) of the 35 core activities, and 7.4 (SD = 2.4) out of 9 sessions. More than half (58.3%) of teachers completed 28 or more core activities; 69.1% covered eight or all nine sessions, which is equivalent to 80% of the HIV intervention curriculum. Almost half of the teachers (43%) reported that the pandemic negatively impacted their ability to teach the program; 72% of teachers maintained that the program remained "very important" during times of crisis. Greater self-efficacy and supports increased implementation fidelity.

Adaptive Mechanism for Water and Wastewater Construction Companies in Coping with the Disruption of Projects Due to Crisis

The water and wastewater construction company (WWCC) plays an important role maintaining water sustainability for human. It is a very intricate industry vulnerable to disruptions, delays, and disputes in times of crisis or pandemic. It is a system that has internal interactions on its 5Ms of management such as Man, Material, Machine, Method, and Money that are sensitive to change affected by external environment which in turn affected their current projects. One of the external factors that affected WWCC in the year 2020 is the occurrence of coronavirus covid19. During the pandemic, the global construction industry including WWCC have experienced drastically altered risk environment applied to funding, labor shortages, material delays, suspension, and termination of contracts (Barriere 2020). The pandemic has affected WWCC’s 5Ms of management that ranges that eventually affected the triple constraints of projects such as scope, time, and cost. The study has determined the level of severity of the effect before and during covid19 to WWCC’s 5Ms of management that eventually affected the three interdependent constraints of projects. The data gathered before and during covid19 were compared and ultimately utilized in formulating the adaptive mechanism for WWCC in coping with the disruption of projects during crisis. The adaptive mechanism comprises of the precontemplation and contemplation phases. During pandemic, WWCC has to determine if there is a need for change in their organization. They have to adapt through precontemplation through internal and external scanning and situational analysis in order for them to comprehend and adapt to the change. WWCC upon realizing of the needed change, has to continue with the contemplation stage by utilizing the stop, start and continue (SSC) principle. To be more precise with the implementation of change, WWCC has to exercise pause, focus and identify prior to executing the SSC principle, followed by implementation, action, and maintenance.

Mapping fear in financial markets: Insights from dynamic networks and centrality measures

Investor sentiment, particularly fear sentiment, significantly influences financial markets by increasing uncertainty and triggering extreme judgments during volatile periods. This study delves into the impact of fear sentiment on market dynamics and interdependencies between various financial assets, focusing on implied volatility indices for stocks, oil, gold, foreign currency, and bonds. The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented economic shock in 2020, necessitating an examination of how fear sentiments propagated across these assets during times of crisis. By analyzing network dependencies and centralities, this research provides novel insights into financial market fear spillovers. It distinguishes itself by employing implied volatilities instead of historical volatilities and investigating these dynamics during the pandemic. The fear indices, specifically stock and Eurocurrency (stock and gold), exhibited the highest dependency effects during COVID-19 (Russia-Ukraine war), with clustering effects among these indices. We notice also that stock and Eurocurrency (Stock and gold) played a central role in connecting various fear indices, during extreme market conditions. The study also uncovers time-varying dependencies among the fear indices of the considered variables in this study, offering a comprehensive understanding of how extreme events like the pandemic impact financial market fear. This research contributes to the literature on financial market interdependencies during periods of fear, helping investors and policymakers make informed decisions about asset allocation, policy development, and risk assessment in times of financial distress.

The relationship between digital orientation, organizational ambidexterity, and growth strategies of rural SMEs in time of crisis

The rapidly changing digital landscape presents a new context highlighting growth strategies and organizational ambidexterity. This research explores the interaction between growth strategies of rural SMEs, digital orientation, and organizational ambidexterity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey data comprised 204 responses from Finnish SME owner-managers in the rural region of South Ostrobothnia in October 2021. The results from the ordinal regression analysis demonstrate that organizational ambidexterity positively influences the utilization of all growth strategies, serving as a mediator in the relationship between digital orientation and these strategies. Digital orientation is positively associated with applying a product/service development strategy, market development strategy, diversification, and business model development but not with market penetration strategy. These findings suggest that a digital orientation enables SMEs to strike a balance between exploration and exploitation, allowing them to effectively pursue both. Furthermore, digitalization offers rural businesses opportunities to implement more demanding growth strategies. Therefore, to ensure the long-term vitality of rural areas, society and policymakers must collaborate in providing robust digital infrastructure.

Armed actor interventions in humanitarian and public health crises: examining perspectives of crisis-affected community members

BackgroundDespite frequently providing non-military services in times of crisis, little systematic research has examined the perspectives of crisis-affected community members on the role of armed actors responding to humanitarian crises and public health emergencies.MethodsTo address this research gap, 175 interviews were conducted (2020–2021) amongst humanitarian and public health practitioners; armed actors; and crisis-affected community members across three country and four crisis contexts. Specifically, this effort included an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; a refugee crisis on the Jordanian-Syrian border; and a volcanic eruption and COVID-19 outbreak in the Philippines. Data was analysed using grounded theory principles.ResultsCrisis-affected community members held diverse views. Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and government armed actors were characterised as antagonists by some but supportive by others; gender issues were central to perceptions of armed actors, in ways that were both prejudicing and favourable. Overall perception was most closely linked to armed actor roles rather than the relative amount of conflict in a given area.ConclusionsFindings nuance the relevant literature characterizing NSAGs as disruptive agents, and also the relevant literature that does not fully consider the nuances of gender and armed actor roles as deeply relevant to crisis-affected community perspectives on armed actors. These findings have important implications for both policy and academic discourse on militarization and localization.

Legal Analysis of Rising Divorce Cases: Impact of COVID-19 in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia

Objective: This study aim to analyse the legal implications of increase in the divorce rate as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic at the Tanjungkarang Religious Court in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia. Additionally, the study seeks to identify the underlying factors that contributed to the occurrence of divorce at the Tanjungkarang Religious Court during the pandemic. Theoretical framework: Literature in this study was based on the phenomena that several regions in Indonesia have experienced an increase in the divorce rate as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic; the Tanjungkarang Religious Court in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, is one example. From January to June 2020, the Tanjungkarang Religious Court in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, documented 699 divorces amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: This study employs a qualitative methodology and conducts field research. In the interim, both primary and secondary data, acquired through field observation, documentation, and direct interviews, are included in the collected information. In order to facilitate the process of verifying the data, the researcher employed the triangulation method to ascertain its validity. Results and Conclusion: this study found that During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tanjungkarang Bandar Lampung-Indonesia Religious Court witnessed a surge in divorce petitions. June brings the highest volume of divorce cases. Divorce filings experienced a surge during the months of April, May, and June, as well as throughout the shutdown period. Second, divorce cases during the Covid-19 pandemic were precipitated by a variety of factors, with economic factors ranking highest. According to report data from the Tanjungkarang Religious Court, the factors of physical disability, imprisonment sentence, and coerced marriage account for the smallest number of divorce cases. Implications of the research: In order to promote resilience and well-being among families amidst the uncertainties of the current pandemic, it is possible for policymakers, legal practitioners, and community stakeholders to acknowledge the difficulties presented by the disease and devise focused interventions to assist individuals navigating the process of marital dissolution. Originality/value: Studying how COVID-19 has affected divorce rates in particular areas, such as Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, could shed light on the ways in which the pandemic has impacted socioeconomic variables, legal frameworks, and family dynamics there. Policymakers, attorneys, and social service providers can be more informed about the difficulties that families may encounter in times of crisis by having a better understanding of these effects. This knowledge can also help to shape the creation of support networks and laws that deal with these problems. Such studies can also add to the body of knowledge in academia regarding how significant crises affect legal systems and family structures.

A Model for Providing Psychological Support to Healthcare Leaders and Teams in Times of Crisis.

Pre-pandemic, the healthcare workforce was already at risk for higher burnout than the general population and, in some roles (e.g., physicians, nurses), at higher risk for clinical distress and suicide. Studies of healthcare workforce well-being during and after past pandemics reflect that distress can persist after a pandemic subsides, if adequate support within the workplace is not forthcoming and accessible. The current report presents the rationale for and development of a wellness consult service to provide support to leaders and teams in an academic medical center during the COVID-19 pandemic and now as teams work to recover and rebuild after years of significant pandemic and other stressors. Healthcare workers who participated in supportive Listening Sessions or Interactive Workshops facilitated by the wellness consult service were invited to complete an anonymous post-session survey. Between March 2020 and November 2022, 185 leaders and teams participated in 342 supportive Listening Sessions and Interactive Workshops. Of the respondents to the post-session survey (N = 701), 89% rated the intervention as "good to excellent" and 84% were likely or very likely to recommend this service. Leaders rated the experience more highly than non-leaders (F (1,307) = 13.99, p < 0.001) and were more likely to report feeling emotionally supported (F (1,304) = 19.836, p < 0.001). Supporting leader and team well-being may be critical to post-pandemic recovery of the healthcare workforce. The current report presents a feasible, theory-driven model for doing so, which was rated as highly satisfactory by participants.

A Computational Linguistic Approach to Study Border Theory at Scale

Border Theory suggests individuals createborders to manage the transitions between work and family (or, more generally, life) domains. The degree of separation or integration of domains across borders has an impact on the balance between work and life. Previous studies have shown individuals who perceive balance between work and life domains tend to be more satisfied with their lives, reporting higher physical and mental health. At times of crisis, such as during a pandemic, borders can be disrupted, affecting work-life balance and leading to a short- or long-term negative impact on well-being. Border theory provides a systematic lens through which to study these changes. However, changes cannot be studied using interviews or diaries as these are not at the scale required when societal disruptions occur. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of using a computational linguistic approach to operationalize border theory at scale, using readily available social media data. In particular, we make two main contributions. First, we design metrics to measure key characteristics of borders. This involves the application of a transformer-based topic modeling technique, BERTopic, to detect topics from social media data. Second, we apply this operationalization to a case study of around a million tweets posted by nearly two hundred teachers and journalists in the UK from the beginning of 2019 to the end of 2022. In so doing, we longitudinally study and compare the changes in borders between work and life before, during, and after COVID-19 lockdown periods.

“They were too fragile”: questioning feminist resilience in Russian Doll

ABSTRACT A significant number of half-hour comedy-dramas led by resilient (yet precarious – see Wanzo, 2016) women have sprung up on US TV in the past years. Some of the most recent examples of such programmes have situated their female leads within time loops and parallel universes, such as Undone (Amazon Prime Video, 2019–2022), Russian Doll (Netflix, 2019–2022), and Slip (The Roku Channel, 2023—). Therefore, this article will explore how the fluctuating meaning and the role of individual resilience in the context of neoliberal feminism is articulated through the time loop trope in women-centric television. In addition to capturing the overwhelm of managing the self and navigating around neoliberal life trajectories in times of crisis, Russian Doll allows us to see a form of resilient resistance that favours community over individualism and relational selves over sovereign selves (McRobbie, 2020). This article will engage with scholarship on the resilient, bounce-backable (Orgad and Gill, 2018) woman in contemporary television (for example, Gorton, 2021) to contextualize televisual renderings of the work that goes into resilient self-management. Russian Doll exemplifies the current televisual tendency to render resilient feminist subjects in a way that draws attention to and questions the merits and meaning of resilience.

Tackling the social marketing formative research bottleneck: comparative analysis of the complementary nature of community-generated personas and focus groups

Purpose This study aims to understand the utility of personas and illustrate, through a case study, how a persona-building exercise in a Community Based Prevention Marketing (CBPM) training of community leaders elicited important insights that complemented findings from ongoing formative research on vaccine hesitancy in the Hispanic/Latino population in the USA during COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory concurrent parallel qualitative study design compared three personas created by community-based organization members (n = 37) to transcripts from five formative research focus groups (n = 30) from the same project. All participants in this study were recruited by the National COVID-19 Resiliency Network as part of their capacity-building and formative research activities. Grounded theory guided the content analysis. Findings This study found personas and focus groups to be complementary. A high degree of co-occurrence was observed when investigating the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine under the categories of barriers, culture and communication. Between the two methods, the authors found strong associations between fear, disruption to the value system, work-related barriers, inaccessibility to health care and information sources and misinformation. Areas of divergence were negligible. Research limitations/implications While personas provided background information about the population and sharing “how” to reach the priority population, focus groups provided the “why” behind the behavior, followed by “how”. Practical implications A community-driven persona-building process built on cultural community knowledge and existing data can build community capacity, provide rich information to assist in the creation of tailored messages, strategies and overall interventions during a public health crisis and provide user-centered, evidence-based information about a priority population while researchers and practitioners wait on the results from formative research. Originality/value This case study provided a unique opportunity to analyze the complementary effectiveness of two methods acting in tandem to understand the priority population: stakeholder-informed persona-building and participant-informed focus group interviews. Understanding their complementary nature addresses a time gap that often exists between researchers and practitioners during times of crises and builds on recommendations associated with bringing rigor into practice, promoting academic contribution to real-world issues and building collaborative partnerships. Finally, it supports the utility of a nimble tool that improves social marketers’ ability to know more about their audience for intervention design when time is of the essence and formative research is ongoing.

Resource exchange patterns between Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs): A multilevel network assessment to improve disaster response capacity

Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs) depend on interorganizational networks to rapidly deliver services to communities during times of crisis. These networks allow VOAD members to share resources before, during, and after disasters. A growing body of empirical research indicates that routine, pre-disaster interactions and exchanges between organizations predict coordination and collaboration during disasters. Rarely, however, do organizations systematically assess such routine exchanges. This study seeks to fill this gap by presenting a cyclical five-step framework in which organizations use assessments of multilevel routine exchanges to improve disaster response networks. During a pilot project with Nebraska VOAD members and their partners, we created a network survey to collect multilevel resource exchange data. The survey was administered to a total of 51 organizations in the Nebraska VOAD survey roster. We received complete surveys from 43 Nebraska VOAD organizations (84 % response rate). We use these survey results to illustrate how organizations can use our network assessment process of identifying, intervening, and improving to enhance disaster response capacity. State-level VOADs can use this approach to understand: 1) how their exchange networks function, 2) which organizations are exchange ‘pillars’ across multiple networks, and 3) which organizations could be better integrated into exchange networks. By evaluating resource exchange networks before and between disaster events, VOADs can adapt their networks to better assist communities during disasters.

Parental Experiences of Supporting the Mental Health of Their LGBTQA+ Child

Young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer or questioning, asexual and other diverse genders and sexualities (LGBTQA+) are at greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes and suicide, with additional barriers to accessing safe and affirming physical and mental health services in comparison to the general population. Parents of LGBTQA+ young people who are supportive and accepting can take on additional responsibilities and an active role in supporting young people, and more information is needed to understand how parents support LGBTQA+ young people in times of acute mental health difficulties (including suicide risk) and what parents experience while navigating support systems. It is imperative these experiences are better understood to inform other parents, clinicians and service providers alike. We aimed to develop a nuanced understanding of the experiences of Australian parents of LGBTQA+ young people in providing support during times of acute distress and suicidal crisis. We utilized an exploratory qualitative design using semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 11 parents. We provide clinically useful recommendations, with the aim of aiding enhanced parental support for LGBTQA+ young people, given this population’s unique needs.

In Times of Multiple Crises: How Do Young People See Their Future?

In Times of Multiple Crises: How Do Young People See Their Future?

Leadership in times of natural crises-a systematic literature review

The topic of leadership comes with many elements of situational scenarios, one particular of interest is during times of natural crisis. Natural crisis affects businesses and people worldwide with varying effects. It is notable that leadership styles and other factors can lead a business either to success or failure based on their proactivity. To explore the area of leadership studies in times of natural crises, a systematic literature review was undertaken. The review of studies from past fifteen years revealed that there were a lot of studies on the topic of leadership. Out of those, only 34 articles published from 2005 to 2020 were found relevant to the topic under study. These were presented in the form of a systematic literature review of “Leadership in Times of Natural Crises”. The systematic literature review was done using PRISMA framework which is the most widely known method of conducting review. The main link between these articles, although each focusing on different areas of research, was the relationship between leadership styles and impact on organizational management during natural crises. The review of the 34 articles from Scopus database explored different leadership styles and theories with their impact on organizations. The resources grew substantially in relation to COVID-19 in 2020, which also highlights the importance of this topic as there were limited resources available in the last twenty years when exploring papers that studied the impact of leadership impact during SARS outbreak in 2003. The finding of this article highlights the gap in research on leadership studies, and particularly in relation to pandemics, or for a broader term, natural crises.

Working Capital Management in Times of Crisis in Kenya

This study examines the role of working capital management in sustaining businesses, specifically during times of crisis like economic downturns or pandemics such as COVID-19. The study emphasizes the need for proactive strategies that can effectively manage uncertainties, preserve liquidity, and ensure business continuity despite disruptions in sales, supply chains, and credit risks. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review, the study highlights the importance of organizational resilience and proactive approaches to working capital management in addressing challenges during crises. Additionally, the paper thoroughly examines strategies including cash management, inventory management, and accounts receivable management, emphasizing the importance of thorough assessment, proactive planning, and strategic decision-making. In summary, the study underscores the importance of efficient working capital management as a key factor in enabling companies to successfully overcome crises and emerge stronger and more resilient.

Insights into Gold Investing: Exploring Investor Behavior

A content analysis was conducted to examine factors influencing investor behavior when investing in gold and to look into possible reasons for selling gold. The results showed that investors' needs, return expectations, herding behavior, fear of financial collapse, higher appreciation rate, store of value, and liquidity all significantly impact gold investment decisions. The analysis also identified factors that may lead to selling gold in times of crisis, such as uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, perception of gold as a safe haven during global financial instability, rise in the price of gold during crisis periods, its value as a hedging instrument, an essential investment source, protection against inflation, and also as a medium of exchange. An important motive for selling gold during these periods is to flee to safer assets. The research also revealed that although the demand for gold is usually higher in times of economic uncertainty and inflation, cash shortages do not significantly impact the decision to sell gold.