Journal articles on the topic 'Crisis-triggering context'

The modern world is characterized by a high degree of digitalization, so citizens have access to an increasing variety of savings options. In just a few clicks, people can purchase shares of the largest companies, invest in real estate rental funds, open deposits in almost any bank, and purchase digital assets. However, financial literacy has not yet reached the level needed to use all financial instruments consciously. Since confidence in the banking and financial system is low, people save in cash, which slows economic growth. The study of various forms of savings and their reliability and availability can increase cashflow from individuals, triggering growth, especially in the current crisis conditions of 2020–2022, with unprecedented sanctions. The purpose of the study is to develop recommendations for the development of modern forms of effective savings for the population under the conditions of a systemic economic crisis. The study uses publicly available data on personal savings rates and relevant scholarly literature and uses the methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison, deduction, and statistical generalizations. In the course of the study, key savings trends and urgent income issues were identified, allowing for the formulation of several recommendations to improve the efficiency of modern savings methods.

On 14 April 2010 the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, erupted resulting in a volcanic ash cloud across European airspace. The ash cloud caused a moratorium on flying and concerns over health effects to vulnerable populations. Not even a year since the volcanic ash cloud; on 11 March 2011 a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred near the northeastern coast of Japan, creating extremely destructive tsunami waves which hit Japan just minutes after the earthquake, triggering evacuations and warnings across the Pacific Ocean. The disaster also led to concerns over nuclear power plant meltdowns in the affected areas and risk of radiation. High perceived risks associated with the Japanese tsunami and volcanic ash crisis are examples of scenarios where accurate and timely health and safety communications are vital for effective emergency response. However, communications immediately following such events face unique challenges. This report describes the challenges faced in terms of crisis communication immediately following high perceived risk events and positions the example case studies in the context of an existing crisis communication paradigm.

In March 2020, a pandemic was declared internationally, caused by a new coronavirus called COVID-19. With the advent of the COVID-19 virus and the declaration of the pandemic, safety and distancing measures have been instituted, which we cannot say we are used to and which we easily accept, but which are necessary to combat the spread of the virus. We also cannot deny that this pandemic has affected and continues to affect our mental health, triggering a certain state of anxiety and with it the lowering of our immune system, which makes us more vulnerable to disease. Paradoxically, mental health is one of the first things that helps us to resist and survive the crisis, which is why it is important to provide employees with protection to ensure the necessary mental comfort at work. In this context, this paper synthesizes the basic principles and best practices of psychosocial risk assessment, highlighting how hazard identification and risk management strategies should be based on the involvement of all stakeholders in combating anxiety at workplace.

AbstractThis paper situates the subprime crisis in the context of the performance of the American economy over the last twenty-five years. The restructuring of the US economy is briefly reviewed, followed by an examination of some of the contradictions of the neoliberal model. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the reasons behind stagnant investment, and how the US finance-led accumulation-régime has become dependent upon, and threatened by, credit-creation delinked from the financing of fixed-capital formation. I argue that while the defeat of the remnants of the New-Deal/Civil-Rights liberal-democratic coalition has provided the political context for the bold re-assertion of the prerogatives of capitalist owners, the neoliberal model has not provided a path out of problems of stagnation and growing debt-dependency that presently plague the US (and global) economy. Further, I argue that evidence suggests that the post-1982 restoration of profitability that underpinned the relative improvement of US economic performance has peaked, and that compelling historical and theoretical reasons exist to expect that the profit-rate will decline in the coming decade. This will introduce additional stresses on the current debt-structure of the US economy, triggering a period of prolonged crisis and economic dislocation. The conclusion is that the US economy faces the spectre of a protracted crisis associated with the reassertion of the falling rate of profit.

This research analyses “tourist mobility” in the context of the health crisis of COVID‑19 to unravel the meanings that situated actors produce about this practice at an exceptional moment in history. Based on an ethnographic case, the archetype of the Argentine tourist corridor, this article portrays the 2020‑2021 holiday season, investigating the experiences of tourists and permanent residents who received seasonal displacements in their territories. From here, it was possible to recover a series of transformations that allow us to understand how the pandemic disrupted the meanings associated with “summer culture” and its counterpoint, “the local tour‑ ist season”; all this with the purpose of outlining triggering hypotheses about the traces that this atypical season may have left on tourism practice.

Since the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis in 2013, there have been repeated statements by officials and politicians of the Federal Republic of Germany highlighting cooperation within the structures of the European Union as a kind of "insurance policy" for each member state. This paper examines the use of this term as a metaphor within political rhetoric to illustrate the perceived benefits of EU membership in the context of foreign policy and security challenges. In this sense, the European Union is portrayed as a safety net for its members amidst strained relations with Russia, given that country's role in triggering and shaping the dynamics of the Ukrainian crisis (and beyond). Additionally, the analysis explores the changing perception regarding EU enlargement policy, specifically how it is increasingly viewed as a tool for advancing European security and other political interests. Following a brief overview of the geopolitical nature of the war risk in Ukraine, the paper analyzes statements by German officials, seeking to clarify them through theoretical approaches in international relations (e.g., constructivism, liberal intergovernmentalism, realism) on the one hand, and through technical-conceptual definitions of the term "insurance" and related elements on the other hand.

Migration as a social phenomenon is a subject of interest to many disciplines. The fundamental question is: in which categories do we perceive the current wave of immigration in Europe. Perhaps it is a permanent migration crisis, as well in the social as in the the economic dimension or perhaps it is only a conjunctural issue. Part of European countries calculates that along with immigrants new jobs will appear, it will result in economic revival. It means that immigrants can stimulate economic but also cultural development. Therefore, you should "take a look" at the process of the migration in the micro and the macro scale. Taking into account this point of view, you should also analyze the phenomenon of contemporary migration in the multicultural context and through the adaptation processes. In their new social environment they will have to function without triggering hostility and aggression. The process of socio-professional adaptation is long and therefore it will force curren monitoring of the social and economic sciences.

Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic represented a health emergency for prisons. This study sought to understand the meanings and experiences through the narratives of prisoners and family members affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of a maximum-security state penitentiary complex in southern Brazil. For this purpose, a qualitative study was developed based on the methodological framework of constructivist grounded theory. Data were collected between February and August 2022 through individual in-depth interviews and field notes. The sample consisted of 41 participants: 28 male prisoners, and 13 family members. Guided by the Charmaz method of grounded theory analysis, the study afforded the core category “Feeling trapped in prison during the COVID-19 pandemic” with three interrelated phases: “Triggering”, “Escalating”, and “Readjustment”. The “Triggering” phase refers to COVID-19-related elements or events that triggered certain reactions, processes, or changes in prison. During the “Escalating” phase, participants became overwhelmed by the suffering caused by incarceration and the pandemic crisis. The “Readjustment” phase involved adapting, reorienting, or reformulating previous approaches or strategies for dealing with a specific situation. Prisons faced complex challenges during the pandemic and were forced to prioritize protecting public health. However, the measures adopted must be carefully evaluated, ensuring their needs and that they are based on scientific evidence. The punitive approach can undermine inmate trust in prison authorities, making it difficult to report symptoms and adhere to preventive measures.

Esta investigación ahonda en el conocimiento de los suicidios en Venezuela, país que vive una profunda crisis humanitaria, agravada desde el año 2014. Se plantean dos enfoques: uno cuantitativo y otro cualitativo. Mediante el primero, se estiman indicadores numéricos para analizar la ocurrencia y la frecuencia de suicidios en el país. Por medio del segundo, se llevan a cabo entrevistas a familiares de víctimas de hechos suicidas y a profesionales vinculados con el tema. Los resultados indican que la tasa de suicidios en Venezuela se incrementó entre 2015 y 2018, muy probablemente como consecuencia de la crisis que atraviesa la nación. Esto se refuerza con los hallazgos derivados de las entrevistas, de donde se extrae que el contexto nacional está presente como factor de riesgo interviniente y componente clave explicativo del probable aumento de los suicidios. La principal conclusión es que la crisis podría haber actuado como detonante de un cúmulo de sentimientos y pensamientos negativos, y de trastornos de depresión y ansiedad, los cuales, a su vez, podrían haber impulsado a venezolanos de distintas edades hacia actos suicidas.
 Abstract
 This research tries to deepen the knowledge of suicides in Venezuela, a country that experiences a deep humanitarian crisis, which has become worse since 2014. For this purpose, two approaches are proposed: a quantitative approach and a qualitative one. In the first one, numerical indicators are estimated in order to know, analyze and understand the incidence of the occurrence and frequency of suicides in the country. Through the second approach, interviews to relatives of victims of suicide and with professionals related to the topic are carried out. The results indicate that the suicide rate in Venezuela increased between 2015 and 2018, most probably as a consequence of the crisis the nation is going through. This conclusion is reinforced with the findings derived from the interviews from which it is deduced that the national context was present as an intervening risk factor and as a key explanatory component of the probable increase in suicide figures. The main conclusion is that the crisis could have acted as a triggering factor for an accumulation of negative feelings and thoughts, and for disorders of depression and anxiety, which, in turn, could have driven Venezuelans of different ages towards suicidal acts.

This study applied a qualitative approach to investigate the underlying influences on consumers’ green food consumption from the intention generation phase to intention execution phase in the perspectives of purchase intention and the intention–behaviour gap (IBG). Additionally, the impact of the “Coronavirus Disease 2019” (COVID-19) pandemic on consumers’ green food purchases was explored. Research data were derived from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 28 consumers and analyzed using grounded theory. The findings identified factors that influenced intentions and the IBG in the process of consumers’ green food purchases. Specifically, these findings reported that health consciousness, perceived attributes, environmental consciousness, social influence, family structure, and enjoyable shopping experiences were identified as major drivers for generating consumers’ green food purchase intentions. High prices of green food, unavailability issues, mistrust issues, and limited knowledge were factors triggering the gap between green food purchase intentions and behaviours. In addition, the results revealed that the COVID-19 crisis increased consumers’ green food purchase intentions, whereas the IBG widens as a result of issues of unavailability, price, and panic. These findings will help stakeholders build future policy and suitable strategies to better promote green food consumption in the Chinese context.


 The climate crisis significantly magnifies the urgency of implementing systemic change. Globally, we have little time remaining in which to bring about the social, political, and economic transformation needed to avoid triggering amplifying feedbacks and runaway climate chaos. In this context, a core challenge is how to mobilise people and inspire widespread action to create this transformation. Understanding current approaches to climate communication is crucial for ensuring that our communication practices play the vital role they will need to in the coming decades. In this article, I do not aim to provide a comprehensive set of guidelines that define effective climate communication. My primary aim is to understand current communication practices. To achieve this, I take a movement-centred activist-scholarship approach to research on climate communication decision-making via in-depth semi-structured interviews with 14 members of the New Zealand climate movement. My intent is to synthesise the perspectives and experiences of New Zealand climate movement participants. Through this, I hope to offer a useful analysis of significant dynamics in climate communication and shed light on dynamics in systemic change communication more broadly.

Humans are at the center of global climate change: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are igniting sustainability with proactive, global, social goals, moving us away from the Brundtland paradigm ‘do nothing today to compromise tomorrows generation’. This promotes a regenerative shift in the sustainability concept, no longer only considering resources and energy, but also significant human-centric attributes. Despite this, precise ecological and sustainable attitudes have little prognostic value regarding final related individual human behavior. The global cultural challenge, dominated by technological innovations and business imperatives, alongside the mirroring technological fallacy and lack of ethical reasoning, makes the role of small actions, at individual and at academic scale even harder. This paper outlines the context in which universities can collaborate and contribute to triggering sustainability values, attitudes, and behavior within future regenerative societies. This contribution consists in three main areas: the first analyzes the issue of sustainability transitions at the individual scale, where influencing factors and value–behavior links are presented as reviewed from a number of multi and transdisciplinary scholars’ works. The second part enlarges the picture to the global dimension, tracing the ideological steps of our current environmental crisis, from the differences in prevailing western and eastern values, tradition, and perspectives, to the technological fallacy and the power of the narratives of changes. Finally, the task of our role as academics in the emerging ‘integrative humanities’ science is outlined with education promoted as an essential driver in moving from sustainability to regenerative paradigms.

PurposeThis paper aims to offer a long-term systematic picture of the evolution of manufacturing offshoring (in terms of intensity, geography and drivers) highlighting the changes in the surrounding context and the resulting transitions points (“points in time”) that have shaped its development path.Design/methodology/approachThree statistical tools were adopted on a dataset of 644 cases. First, the authors resorted to multiple structural change tests to identify the transition points. Second, the authors explored offshoring geography by conducting a network analysis. Finally, the authors adopted gravity models to shed light on offshoring drivers.FindingsResults highlight three offshoring phases: expansion (2002–2006), reconsideration (2007–2009) and rationalization (2010 onwards). During the first phase, characterized by economic growth, firms were mainly interested in economic savings; offshoring to low-cost countries was the prevailing location strategy. Subsequently, during the economic crisis, the number of cases declined and the main drivers became market-based factors together with the research for cost savings. Finally, in the third phase, when the economy was still stagnating and new manufacturing technologies appeared, the number of offshoring cases has further decreased, and technological- and market-based factors have become the main location drivers.Originality/valueThe study is the first to adopt a systematic, empirical and quantitative approach to analyze the evolution of the manufacturing offshoring considering both the phenomenon itself and the triggering changes in the surrounding context. In doing this, the authors also tested the importance of considering the point in time in offshoring strategies.

Faced with an ongoing or imminent danger, crisis managers must do their utmost to protect the exposed population and limit the extent of the disaster. More than during the pre- and post-disaster phases, time is of the essence. This temporal specificity of the disaster is essential compared to the risk. It requires a perfect coordination and a quick response in a context of uncertainty. It is important to intervene rapidly on the scene of the disaster while ensuring there are enough first responders. Crisis managers must also quickly alert the population at risk in order to favor the adoption of protective behaviors and limit inappropriate reactions, panic phenomena, and the spread of rumors. In France, in the event of a danger affecting the population, the intervention of law enforcement and emergency services is relatively rapid, even though there may be differences depending on the territories (urban or rural). On the contrary, the triggering of the alert by institutional actors (the mayor or the prefect, depending on the extent of the disaster) must follow a strict procedure that imposes longer delays and may limit or even neutralize its effectiveness. This article proposes a theoretical reflection on the effectiveness of these two types of intervention (relief and warning) with affected populations in the case of rapid kinetic or unpredictable events affecting people with a low risk culture. This reflection is based on the mathematical model “alert, panic, control” (APC) inspired by models used in epidemiology. It enables the modeling of behavior dynamics by distinguishing control and panic behaviors resulting from the difficulty or incapacity to regulate emotions. Several scenarios are proposed to identify the phases during which these two kinds of intervention have an optimal effect on the population by limiting panic phenomena.

Here we revealed the peculiarities of the every day approach to the vocal education of teenage students, and referred to the contemporary trends of children’s vocal education as well as its transformation in the context of the current realities. We have studied theoretical approaches revealing the issue of our research from the perspective of new scientific achievements of the international vocal pedagogy, and have highlighted the most effective ones in terms of teaching vocals to teenagers. We have analyzed the current guidelines of organizing vocal practice with the use of interactive techniques and described how they can deploy the nature of teen’s creative activity especially in the sphere of art. Teenage students have a remarkable need in showing their skills especially if they have already achieved the level of high competence and are already the students of high school. The biggest authority for the teens is the approval of peers, and the moments of success are essential for such student’s self-esteem and further professional development, particularly in this age. On the other hand, our research views the creative activity as the basic component of the established education process where the teenager is the key actor. Interactive techniques are the effective tool of organizing such process. We have appealed to the experience of such acclaimed international schools as EVT (Estill Voice Training) of the american professor Jo Estill who accumulates creative potential of the teacher and student, thus enhancing and triggering the results of the acquired knowledge. Nowadays the traditional offline forms of delivering lessons are becoming secondary and outdated in the age establishing online education, they are considered less effective, less relevant and hardly able to stand the test of time and the global social-economic crisis. But owing to the crisis the new ways of creative thinking’s development are appearing, which fosters unleashing of the creative powers of the teacher and then of the teenage students, who tend to follow the teacher as the professional authority. The core essence of our work was to study the current and contemporary tendencies for developing teenagers’ creative activity in mastering vocals, therein lies the timeliness of the issue.

PurposeThe term New Normal has become a buzzword to describe the anticipated changes in human life across the globe due to the impact of COVID-19. The paper's purpose is challenging the surrender for the notion of the “New Normal” and constructing a framework by which a call for understanding the practice of architecture, urbanism and city planning before the COVID-19 and contest its responsibility towards the city and the community.Design/methodology/approachMethodologically, literature review, analysis of emerging positions and interviews are the selected tools for conducting the research. The paper adopts a position perceiving COVID-19 has provided an opportunity for reflections and revisions about the way people dwell on Earth. The paper aims at analyzing the positive impacts of COVID-19 in sociological and urban perspective.FindingsConsequently, the main finding of the paper, calls for reviving the forgotten normal in the way places, neighborhoods and cities are designed and planned. Lessons learned from the lockdown time and the actions taken will be analyzed with special attention to Gulf States.Research limitations/implicationsIn months, New Normal developed as the most used expression since the spread of the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic marked the year 2020 with one of the biggest public health crises of all time, threatening to take away millions of lives. It is already initiating a massive economic crisis, triggering further negative consequences for human life, wellbeing and lifestyle. Numerous researchers illustrate that through history, humans faced the challenges of epidemics and pandemics and were able to use their will, capacities, resources and courage to resist and survive.Practical implicationsPandemics such as COVID-19 have caused a critical reassessment of urban spaces. This paper examines the city's relationship to concepts such as the individual, society, creativity, production and power to understand the causes and effects of urbanization. Cities, especially the globally significant ones – such as Wuhan, Milan, Madrid, Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles – are disproportionally affected. Thus, the pandemic is evolving into an urban crisis, forcing us to reconsider our deeply held beliefs about good city form and the purpose of planning.Social implicationsThe nature of the architectural, urban and planning theory and practice, is responsible for looking ahead, formulating visions and offering alternatives. Consequently, the methodological approach adopted in the paper is structured on three main pillars. First, observing, monitoring, and provide diagnosis (what we learned from isolation). Second, understanding the local, regional and global context as the COVID-19 crisis creates a ripple of change on all levels and requires both global and local understanding. Third, formulating visions and looking aheadOriginality/valueSuffering from epidemics and pandemics is new to our time and our contemporary experience but not new to the history of humankind. Revisiting the concepts of the New Normal vs. the Forgotten Normal and use the outcomes to construct an alternative framework for producing places in the post COVID-19 paradigm crystalize the value and originality of the paper.

The article attempts to tackle theoretical and methodological issues related to enhanced understanding of the nature of enterprise financial security as well as the use and the selection of research and methodological tools for its evaluation. An emphasis is put that in the current vulnerable economic environment, domestic enterprises are greatly challenged by a wide range of risks and threats caused by a number of negative effects from external and internal factors. It is argued that the lack of argument and consistency in building a robust financial security framework for business entities might translate into a drop in revenues and profits, loss of liquidity, solvency and financial independence, along with spurring unreasonable amounts of receivables and payables and, consequently, triggering a crisis situation. The purpose of this research is to explore modern analytical, financial, economic and statistical tools to assess the enterprise financial security and to enclose its advantages, disadvantages and applicability in the financial management context. Within the scope of this research, the enterprise financial security is viewed as a particular enterprise state characterized by the most efficient use of resources, profitability, and financial stability which acting together contribute to gaining a successful business performance, eliminating the negative effects from external and internal destabilizing factors over an indefinite period of time. According to the research findings, to assess the enterprise financial security, it is suggested employing a research and methodological toolkit based on the cash flow analysis, evaluation of financial stability, financial indicators, resource-based and functional approach, as well as implementation of integrated indicators. The conclusions of the study resume that given the different criteria and indicators embedded in different approaches (each of them having its pros and cons), to render a comprehensive and informative analysis, using a number of approaches to assess the level of enterprise financial security sounds reasonable enough and thus is strongly recommended.

Abstract In the early 1610s, communities of diplomats and traders with the status of müste’min (foreign resident) in Ottoman Galata were put on alert by the concerted attempt of certain Ottoman officials, especially the kadı of Galata, to extract from them the harac—the tax typically paid only by the ḏimmis (non-Muslim subjects of the sultan). Interwoven into this legal and diplomatic crisis is another story that sheds an interesting light on the entire affair. In 1609 Spanish king Philip III proclaimed the expulsion of Moriscos—(forcibly) Christianized Spanish Muslims—from the Iberian peninsula, triggering a massive exodus of a large segment of population into North Africa, but also to Ottoman Constantinople, via France and Venice. Although Constantinople received a significantly smaller number of refugees than North African principalities under Ottoman suzerainty, the impact of the Morisco diaspora was disproportionally large. In Constantinople, the refugees were settled in Galata, in what appears to be a deliberate attempt by the Ottoman authorities to change the confessional make-up of this overtly non-Muslim section of the city. This is how the fierce economic and confessional competition among the local, already established trading and diplomatic communities and the newcomers began. The paper will reconstruct these competitive relationships on the basis of Ottoman, Venetian, and French contemporary sources by focusing on the incidents surrounding the attempted imposition of the harac on foreign residents and the attempted takeover of Galata churches by the Morisco refugees. It appears that the arrival of the Moriscos and familiarity with their plight in Spain prompted Ottoman officials to rethink the legal status and the notions of extra-territoriality in relation to religious identity in the Ottoman context as well.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during lockdown periods, there has been an increase in cases of Gender-based Violence (GBV), Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and Domestic Violence (DV) globally. This increase has been characterised as a “shadow pandemic” or a “second pandemic”. While previous research has shown a correlation between Violence against Women and times of crisis, little attention has been paid to the Greek context, which revealed a worrying increase in femicides in 2021. In particular, the significant response of civil organisations, women’s rights activists, and the #metooGR social movement in 2021 brought several GBV cases to public attention, triggering social mobilisation towards the fight for gender equality, elimination of GBV, and social justice. This research investigates Greece as a case study, focusing on GBV in the form of IPV in Greece since 2020, particularly during the first and second lockdown. To theoretically ground this investigation, a literature review on the topic has been conducted, complemented with statistics from annual reports on Violence against Women from 2019, 2020, and 2021, which were conducted by the General Secretariat for Demography and Family Policy and Gender Equality, a governmental actor dedicated to these matters. These annual reports are a newly formed initiative in Greece. Furthermore, through expert interviews with members of civil society and women’s rights activists, the discussion will move forward to the unique protection challenges faced during the pandemic, combined with newly invented ways to fight GBV and IPV, while giving survivors a possible way out even during this unique occasion. Based on the secondary data analysis and interviews, an increase in IPV is observed, accompanied by a lack of alignment between legal provisions and law enforcement, and a lack of an established action plan that can assure prevention and protection for women from the moment they experience violence until the closure of their case.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore and theorize the process of managerial feedback in relation to change in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approachThis research embraces a qualitative methodology in the context of manufacturing SMEs. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews, and observations conducted with various managers in six SMEs operating in three countries, it is argued that managers benefit more by using daily, ongoing, feedback as a trigger of change in their organizations.FindingsThe findings suggest that there is an overall view that managers appear to be reluctant to change existing processes using formalized feedback mechanisms, which runs counter-intuitive to the literature. In contrast, informal methods of feedback work better in enhancing organizational change. Moreover, another two features of feedback enhance this process, namely, benefits oriented and confidence oriented. As such, this study contributes to existing knowledge and practice by proposing a three-fold form of feedback through which managers expand their perspectives of feedback from feeding-back to feeding-forward thereby enhancing the opportunities of triggering change.Research limitations/implicationsFeedback should merely be considered as a dynamic and socially constructed managerial practice. A practice where actors not only exchange information and share knowledge, but also act, react and interact with each other as they constantly rethinking the change process. The proposed aspect of feedback emphasizes knowledge therapeutically and in combination with the dialogical discourse (practical illustration) that increases the odds for capturing change as a natural, rather than exceptional.Practical implicationsPractitioners, as such, may wish to consider the terminology used when it comes to studying change and its implementation in a crisis context. Using deformalized managerial feedback mechanisms to tackle a formal phenomenon like “change” could help avoid employees perceiving a negative connotation, causing resistance or confusion and feeling threatened. Therefore, the authors suggest that practitioners, during development initiatives on modernizing or altering organizational processes, consider replacing the term “change” as a formal concept.Originality/valueIt is an investigation from an exploratory perspective in studying and understanding the causes, factors and modalities that trigger managerial feedback toward organizational change in manufacturing SMEs.

As medical-surgical emergencies, regardless of the causal agent, deep cervical space suppurations are not only a diagnostic challenge, but also a therapeutic one. In some cases, in spite of proper therapeutic measures, extremely severe complications can develop. A 5-year retrospective study (2016–2020) was conducted on a group of 107 patients suffering from cervical suppurations, being hospitalized and treated in the ENT Clinic of the “Sf. Apostol Andrei” Emergency County Hospital of Galați. This research is a clinical-statistical study based on the experience of this ENT clinic and was carried out based on the analysis of the patients’ medical records. Descriptive analysis’ statistical methods of the data series collected from the clinical observation sheets were used, with the patients’ informed consent for the processing of the aforementioned data, with the agreement of the Ethics Commission of the Emergency Clinical Hospital “Sf. Apostol Andrei” Galați and the College of Physicians Galați, România. The patients’ clinical and multidisciplinary treatment features included in the study group are presented. The results highlight the clinical particularities of deep cervical space suppurations treatment, including under COVID-19 impact, or with other comorbidities, having consequences on the case mix index increase or directly on the costs, admittance duration and the clinical status of the patient at discharge. The conclusions of the clinical study are based on the fulfillment of the research objectives in terms of treatment and symptomatology of deep cervical space suppurations and under the impact of comorbidities (global health crisis and pandemic, triggering of comorbidities due to health care access difficulty in the context of anti-COVID-19 government-implemented measures and the infection-rate that overburdened the medical system in the early period of the pandemic). Individualized treatment of deep cervical space suppurations is recommended to be approached multidisciplinary. Of particular importance is early diagnosis combined with prompt and correctly instituted multidisciplinary treatment. In this context, an appropriate medical measure that we recommend is patient health education, as it was observed in the clinical study: most times, patients address medical services with advanced disease, hence the generally unfavorable prognosis and outcome (about 25% of patients develop unfavorable prognosis and 4% die).

Purpose The purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, this research aims at helping countries implement an equitable, innovative and context-appropriate stay-home game plan for the millions of disadvantaged and under-privileged students severely affected by the forfeiture of school closures; and secondly, this study proclaims that the burgeoning popularity of gamification has the potential to lay the bedrock foundation for ‘Literacy in the New Norm’. Design/methodology/approach The temporal closure of schools around the world to limit the spread of the COVID-19 has resulted in massive educational disruptions triggering adverse effects and bringing much of education under grave threat. Through a review of the current empirical and conceptual literature, this study proposes a new gamification concept in a non-technology environment. Findings Well underway are global dialogues that hold conversations on implementing mitigation strategies to counter the looming global health crisis. This has generated the impetus for a more concerted effort by concerned governments and international organizations to identify appropriate solutions for the continuity of learning so that the learning never stops. While educators and learners plunge further into the core of reconstructing education, the authors recognize that the fundamentals of technology and virtual connectivity have all along contributed to the multi-faceted e-learning stage set. However, concerns regarding the paradigm shift to remote online learning would certainly exacerbate inequalities cardinally felt across disadvantaged communities around the globe. Originality/value As the world is currently bound by strict isolation measures, learners of all ages have been relegated to the confines of their homes. For the most part, the stark realities of technological mishaps that have befallen underprivileged school children, serve as a reminder to help target children all over the world who are in most peril of losing ground in terms of continued education. It is on these grounds that the criterion set out in this article elucidates the nature and scope of a supplementary stay-home game plan detailing the use of game affordances that bear intelligently in the creation of home-based activities for parents to give it their best effort in fostering a collaborative and meaningful parent-child relationship that spawns the new language of literacy in the new norm.

Despite vast research has been carried out and a great number of approaches are available to assess the economic security of enterprises, currently a range of security-related issues are yet beyond the research agenda, thus triggering a need for their thorough investigation and interpretation, in particular this refers to a contradictedness concept underpinned by the inverse relationship between its level (state) and a management decision which can be effective subject to certain economic indicators. The purpose of this study is to develop theoretical and methodological approaches to assess the enterprise economic security with due regard to management decisions effectiveness. To attain the research objectives, the following research methods have been employed: generalization – to draw conclusions from a primary sources content analysis, analysis and synthesis – to provide deeper understanding of the key research categories along with specifying the economic security indicators. The study suggests an ambivalent approach to the perception of management decisions. Using the example of a decision made as to the implementation of an investment project, it is demonstrated that, in contrast to the existing approaches (in which it is viewed as an anti-crisis measure and a tool to boost the level of economic security), in fact, the project may be effective from the position of enhancing the key economic indicators, however it will fail from the perspective of increasing the level of economic security. In this context, the indicators of the investment project economic efficiency have been updated with a focus towards enhancing the enterprise economic security. The study presents an algorithm to test the investment feasibility together with evaluating its impact on the level and the state of the enterprise economic security. The authors also provide a classification of effects from management decisions aimed at increasing the level of economic security. In addition to the above, a chain modeling algorithm is proposed to assess the state of economic security taking into account the rate of change in reaching by security indicators (and its individual elements) their liminal values. The use of this algorithm allows to predict the effects of multiple alternatives in management decision-making on the state of the enterprise economic security. An improved brute force methodological approach applied to investing in processes (projects) to ensure the enterprise economic security provides for a more balanced approach when making appropriate management decisions. The proposals made have important practical implications since they expand the management analytics capabilities and allow to consider the effects from management decisions on the enterprise economic security.

This study deploys a narrative analysis of stories on the topic of the so-called migration crisis on the EU-Belarus border published on the website of the key Belarusian publishing house Belarus Segodnya between the 1st of June 2021 and the 31st of March 2022. The key eleven narratives were deconstructed through a close engagement with and interpretation of over 1,500 topical publications. The ongoing humanitarian crisis at the EU-Belarus border which peaked in late 2021 followed from the Belarusian regime’s attempt to attain foreign policy goals, foremost the suspension of EU sanctions. The study applies the concept of coercive engineered migration proposed by Kelly Greenhill and finds that the content of most identified narratives fits Greenhill’s predictions that coercing actors focus on manipulating the ability and willingness of targeted states to accept groups of migrants and that challengers tend to impose hypocrisy costs on targets to increase coercive power. The analysis suggests that some of the major state media narratives fit into two groups of coercing strategies proposed by Greenhill while others can be accommodated in the category related to hypocrisy costs. These “blame shifting” narratives cast full responsibility for the origin and persistence of the migrant crisis on the targeted actors. An additional “triggering catastrophe” category is proposed which includes narratives which project cataclysms for the targeted actors and high cost of not hosting migrants for them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been considered the most serious and important public health crisis at this time. In addition to the alarming rates of morbidity and mortality worldwide, this disease has been triggering various types of psychological distress, due to social isolation, fear of falling ill or contaminating friends or family. Therefore, it is necessary to develop psychological treatment services for those who have some form of mental disorder resulting from this pandemic and its effects. This paper describes the experience and results of an online psychological care service developed by the Municipal Department of Health in Guaratinguetá, in the state of Sao Paulot, hat aimed to provide a psychological treatment to the general population and health professionals in order to alleviate suffering and favor a better quality of life. The results show that 145 people were treated remotely, predominantly female (79.3%), aged between 41-59 years (35.2%) and between 60-80 years (22.1%). A large part of the population treated has completed high school (38.0%), is a housewife (26.9%) or is unemployed (16.6%). About the complaint, it was observed that the vast majority referred to anxiety (45.4%) or depression (18.9%). From these data, it is concluded that the continuity and expansion of this type of service is necessary for protection and promotion of the mental health of the population in general and, more specifically, of the health professionals who are on the front line of combat to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Georgian economy, as an integrated part of global and regional economy, has been hit by the pandemic, triggering the ‘coronavirus crisis’ in terms of a sharp drop in GDP, mass unemployment, and rocked inflation. The pandemic intensifies the existing systematic issue - country’s dependence on external sources of economic growth - FDI, remittances, external trade, tourism, financial assistance of international organizations. Uncertainty and pessimistic expectations demotivate entrepreneurship. The goal of the article is to investigate entrepreneurship in Georgia, as a common and country-specific phenomenon in the wake of global pandemic, focusing attention on challenges and new opportunities. The research method is heavily qualitative due to the exploratory nature of the study. Case study, narrative content analysis and currently available statistical evidence are also applied. The pandemic requires the restructuring of the national economy, opens new opportunities for innovative entrepreneurship. The social distancing has dramatically altered consumers’ behavior and habits in their shopping, leisure and travel. Online education, entertainment, sales, healthcare services, remote working, etc. present new opportunities for entrepreneurs. The lockdowns reorient consumers on mass digitalization, they buy more local goods (services) in local markets. Pandemic enhances Georgian young generation’s incentives to choose entrepreneurship as a career choice.

Background: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is most common genetic disorder and its prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa is increasing. Despite increased survival rates, experiences of adults living with SCD in Tanzania is not well explored. This article provides perceived causes of pain crisis, pain self- management approaches and psychosocial implication of SCD. Aim: This study aimed at exploring experiences of adults living with SCD regarding pain triggering or aggravating factors; self-management for pain; psychosocial-economical implication of SCD and coping mechanism used by individuals living with SCD Methods: A qualitative study design was chosen using in-depth interviews with adults living with SCD to explore their experience of living with SCD. Fifteen adults aged 18 years and above living with SCD were interviewed. Data were analyzed by using content analysis approach. Findings: Four categories emerged that described experiences of individuals with SCD. The four categories are; “Pain Triggering and Aggravating Factors” describing participants’ perceived factors causing pain in SCD; “Self-care remedies for the pain” referring to participants’ methods for self-management of pain; “Psychosocial-economic impact of illness” referring to participants’ experience of implication of illness on social and economic life and “Dealing and coping with illness” referring to experience of participants on management and coping strategies used to live with the illness. Conclusion: Individuals with SCD experiences several episodes of pain that affect their quality of life. Pain episode can be triggered or aggravated by various factors. Several approaches are used by individuals with SCD to self-manage the pain including taking rest, drinking plenty of water or using pain relieving medication. Care for individuals with SCD should be comprehensive and include proper management of pain, health education on home-based intervention for sickle cell pain, supportive services to deal with psychosocial implications of SCD and improving coping strategies to live with the illness.

The objective of this concept paper focuses on the relevance of the analytical potential of Social Sciences for understanding the multiple implications and challenges posed by the COVID-19 contagion–pandemic dyad. This pandemic is generating a global threat with a high number of deaths and infected individuals, triggering enormous pressure on health systems. Most countries have put in place a set of procedures based on social distancing, as well as (preventive) isolation from possible infected and transmitters of the disease. This crisis has profound implications and raises issues for which the contribution of Social Sciences does not seem to be sufficiently mobilised. The contribution of Social Sciences is paramount, in terms of their knowledge and skills, to the knowledge of these problematic realities and to act in an informed way on these crises. Social Sciences are a scientific project focused on interdisciplinarity, theoretical and methodological plurality. This discussion is developed from the systems of relationships between social phenomena in the coordinates of time and place, and in the socio-historical contexts in which they are integrated. A pandemic is a complex phenomenon as it is always a point of articulation between natural and social determinations. The space of the discourse on the COVID-19 pandemic can be understood as the expression of a coalition of discourses, i.e., the interaction of various discourses, combined in re-interpretative modalities of certain realities and social phenomena. The circumstantial coalitions of interests, which shape the different discursive records and actions produced by different agents of distinct social spaces, enable the acknowledgement and legitimation of this pandemic threat and danger, and the promotion of its public management.

Ethiopia is a multicultural and multilingual country. The Oromo and Somali communities are found in the same linguistic community, that is, the Cushitic language. Historically, Somalis and Oromo have a long tradition of co-existence and strong socio-cultural interactions, as well as antagonistic relationships and intermittent conflicts. Traditionally, the major sources of conflict between the two communities were competition over scarce resources, territorial expansion, livestock raids and counter raids, kidnapping for marriage purposes and the revenge tradition. However, this time the conflict took a different nature, form and bigger scale causing devastation never seen in the history of communal conflict in the country. The study has utilised primary and secondary data collection and employed narration and content analysis to realise the objective of the paper. The findings of this study reveal that the causes of the Oromo–Somali conflict are complex and dynamic. This urges the need to carry out a deeper investigation beyond the federal arrangement. Thus, fundamental and triggering factors including the involvement of internal and external forces, the collapse of social norms and prevalence of moral anarchism, socio-economic issues, competing interests among public and military officials, poor leadership and governance system, competing interests over resources, aspects of local cultural institutions in regulating inter-ethnic relationships are identified in fuelling ethnic conflict in the studied area. Since the conflict in the region is much more complex than the dominant narrative of resource scarcity and ethnic politicisation, open democratic dialogue, genuine consultation and negotiation at a different level with various interest groups, stakeholders and community representatives, militant groups operating in the area is of paramount importance to ease the increasing ethnic tension and political crisis in order to build sustainable peace in the region.

Introduction Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is currently the only curative treatment for sickle cell disease (SCD) offered to patients with a fully matched sibling (MSD) or matched unrelated donor (MUD). With a MSD/MUD donor availability of below 20% a haploidentical HSCT from a family donor either with post-transplant cyclophosphamide (post-cy) or with a TCRαß/CD19 depleted graft (T-haplo) is an increasingly successful alternative for the majority of patients. In contrast to post-cy where mostly bone marrow is used, T-haploHSCT requires the generation of a G-CSF stimulated peripheral stem cell grafts. Almost uniformly haploidentical relatives of SCD patients are heterozygous carriers of SC trait. For these donors with a genetically heterozygous sickle trait, G-SCF represents a major safety concern with regard to triggering a sickle cell crisis. Therefore, the use of sickle trait donors is prohibited or not recommended in several countries, and guidelines are currently not available due to lack of evidence. Methods Haploidentical related donors with heterozygousSCD (group S, n=13) as well as healthy donors (group O, n=9) were stimulated with G-CSF. In all donors a similar mobilizations schedule using G-CSF was applied. All donors were applied 10µg/kg body weight (Neupogen®or Granocyte®) sub cutaneous daily with first apheresis on day 5 and day 6 when necessary. The amount of mobilized CD34+ cells were assessed after mobilization. In addition, the harvested stem cell preparations were analysed for CD34 content after apheresis and patients monitored for potential serious adverse effects (AE) during and after the apheresis. Results Mobilization was tolerated well with only mild and typical AE related to apheresis procedure such as citrate reactions, joint pain, ostealgia and headache, observed equally in both groups. In most of the donors (n=13/13 and 8/9), we were able to collect a sufficient amount of CD34+peripheral stem cells (mean of 16.3 and 8.2 x 10^6/kg in group S and O, respectively). We observed slight increases in LDH and reticulocyte counts in few donors also without significant differences between both groups. In particular, there were no severe neurologic side effects and no problems like sickle cell crisis despite mean pre-apheresis hemoglobin concentrations of 14.1 (range 11.9-17.5) g/dL in group S. Conclusions Collectively, these data indicate that in the absence of a MSD or MUD donor, haploidentical family donors with heterozygoussickle cell trait provide a safe and effective alternative for collection of peripheral CD34+stem cells for a T-haplo HSCT. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Adolescence is a stage in development experienced by individuals that is different from previous periods. In this period individuals face puberty which is marked by the transition from childhood to adulthood. At this time, teenagers face doubt, uncertainty, emotional instability, so that their actions often deviate from values and norms, this deviation is influenced by many aspects both from within and from outside. The aim of this research is to identify, analyze, study and conclude the factors that trigger juvenile delinquency and efforts to overcome it. The method used in the research is library research with a systematic literature review (SLR) approach. Data collection was carried out using journal search techniques with the keywords "juvenile delinquency", "triggers or causes of juvenile delinquency", "efforts to overcome juvenile delinquency", from journals indexed by Sinta or Google Scholar, and Scopus which were published in the last six years, namely 2018-2023, Data validity testing is carried out by selecting journals based on inclusion and exclusion criteria which will be reviewed is currently analyzing the data by processing all collected articles identified based on inclusion and non-inclusion, place, index, content, then described and analyzed and concluded. The results of the research show that the triggering factors for juvenile delinquency consist of internal and external factors, internal factors namely from within oneself due to an identity crisis, weak control and self-control, and lack of discipline; while external factors include family environment, lack of attention and affection from parents, broken home, low knowledge and practice of religion, poor social environment, school environment, negative influence of peers, weak economy, uncontrolled use of social media information technology, low level of education, and carefree upbringing, while efforts are being made to control it with a strong understanding and practice of religion, democratic parenting, attention and affection and treatment of teenagers according to their age, giving good role models, giving trust and responsibility, training entrepreneurial entrepreneurs, and collaboration with youth organizations in providing sports activities and religious studies. This research provides information about the factors that cause juvenile delinquency and its prevention so that parents or schools can reduce or prevent juvenile delinquency.

Introduction With medical advancements over the past decades, the life expectancy for people with sickle cell disease (SCD) is longer than ever before. As they age, people with SCD acquire both SCD-complications and age-related comorbidities that lead to premature functional impairment, requiring individuals to make complex decisions that affect their work and career ambitions. There is a gap in the literature on work experiences in older adults with SCD. The purpose of this study is to describe the work experiences of older adults with SCD. Methods We enrolled 19 older adults with SCD (age ≥ 50) from a comprehensive sickle cell center. We conducted semi-structured interviews by phone and in-person. Participants were asked open-ended questions about their experiences living with SCD and their single biggest problem faced with having SCD. Participants described obstacles faced when working and strategies to continue working as older adults living with SCD. Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze the transcripts. Results The mean age of participants was 58 years (range 50-71) and 47% were women. Nearly half were externally employed (47%), 5% unemployed, 11% retired, 32% disabled, and 5% self-employed. Only 21% had a high school education or less, 37% completed some college, associates, or technical school, 26% had a bachelor's degree, and 16% had an advanced degree. For household income, 37% earned ≤ $30,000, 16% earned $30,001-$50,000, and 42% earned > $50,001. The majority were the head of their household (53%) and 21% reported living alone. Within the last 6 months, 32% were hospitalized and 26% missed at least a day of work due to a pain crisis. Most participants (53%) had HbSS genotype, 37% had HbSC, and 11% had HbSβ+-thalassemia. There were two major work-related themes that emerged from the interviews (Figure 1). Theme 1 was “ Obstacles faced when working ”, which centered around interferences with work. Participants discussed the physical limitations, SCD-related complications, lack of energy to perform job tasks, and pain crises that would interfere with their work schedule and sometimes keep them out of work for years. Participants described concerns about being forced to retire early or give up their business due to health-related issues. Many described challenges with work as the single-biggest problem they faced as an older adult with SCD. Participants also described obstacles related to a lack of understanding from their employers. They described getting sick and staying in the hospital for days at a time, then being expected to return to work immediately after discharge. One participant described sharing their disease diagnosis with an employer and being discriminated against working that kind of job. Theme 2 was “Strategies to continue working”, which centered around participants knowing their limits and modifying the type of work they did. Participants described learning to listen to their body when it has reached its limit, knowing when to back away and come back to job responsibilities, and knowing when to take breaks. Participants also described the importance of finding accommodating employers who were understanding of when they had to miss work. Some participants described how they had to learn new skills to do alternative, more flexible jobs that were not as physically taxing on their body, such as working from home, starting a business, or becoming a real estate agent. They especially emphasized the importance of being aware of how far they could go with certain jobs to avoid triggering pain crises. Participants also described going through periods of temporary disability or retirement, then getting a new job and slowly working their way up from part-time to full-time. Conclusion Older adults with SCD provided insight into the unique obstacles they faced while working and described work-related challenges as the single biggest problem they faced. Moreover, many described the strategies they developed over time and accommodations that allowed them to continue working or re-enter the workforce. Data provided from these experiences convey the dire need for policymakers and employers to support accommodations needed by adults with SCD to continue working. This information will help guide younger adults with SCD to better navigate the working world and achieve their ambitions as they advance in age.

Purpose This study aims to reveal the triggering mechanism and boundary conditions of tourists’ cross-border travel anxiety (CBTA) from different crisis information sources. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the heuristic-systematic model (HSM), this study constructs a theoretical formation path of tourists’ CBTA. Based on competence-based and moral-based crises, hypotheses were examined through three situational experiments, targeting Chinese and Malaysian potential tourists. Findings Organization-released crisis information triggers higher tourists’ CBTA than government ones, with perceived uncertainty mediating it. Crisis communication message appeals (CCMAs) (rational vs emotional) negatively moderate the above relationships. Rational CCMAs work for governmental crisis communication, while emotional CCMAs work for organizational ones. Practical implications This study proposes a heuristic cross-border tourism crisis information dissemination strategy for destination management organizations and highlights the advantages of CCMAs in preventing secondary crises. Originality/value This study reexamines the cause-and-effect and the intervention mechanisms of tourists’ reactions to crisis information, which expands the cross-border tourism crisis management research and the application of the HSM in such a context.

Abstract This article analyses the recent growth in asylum applications both in and at the borders of Europe. It enriches the scholarship on the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ with an emphasis on structural transformations and geographical processes. While an increase in regional violence near Europe in 2015 played a key role in triggering displacements, we suggest three longer-term factors that may have facilitated access to European borders but led to urgent and often dangerous migratory situations for asylum seekers: the ‘shortening’ of distances, the crisis of containment policies and the geographic asymmetry of rights. On this basis, we interpret the EU policy of closing borders as an attempt to (re)create a geographic buffer separating refugees from their destinations in the context of the globalization of asylum-related issues.

Abstract. Although neuropsychological assessments include some measures that are administered, scored, or interpreted using new technologies, most researchers in this area advocate that more technology should be integrated. The current situation in neuropsychological assessment may be conceptualized as triggering a crisis leading to a paradigm shift, as there is some resistance to adopting more technology. In this paper, the context of the present crisis in neuropsychological assessment, the main obstacles, and new developments will be discussed. An example of a new computerized assessment tool, the NIH Toolbox, is highlighted. Also addressed are potential issues: in the assessment with tablets illustrating it with the older adult population and how to ensure the compatibility of data collected through these devices within the framework of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Recommendations for research, test development, and clinical practice are also provided.

The paper analyzes social resilience at county level in Romania, in the context of the recent global financial and economic crisis. Generally, social resilience is seen as the ability of communities to cope with external stress such as changes in the economic environment. This study emphasizes the vulnerabilities of economies where communities live in, namely the particularities of economic environment where human communities evolve and co-evolve by resilience emergence. Thus, the link between the social and the economic component requires a special attention, initially external shock being experienced by the economic structure, which, to respond to sudden changes, dissipates shock to the other components of the social-economic system, namely the social component. The close relationship between the economic and the social components causes economies deepening into crisis by triggering a circular causality process. The population’s decision to change residence interrupts this process, leading to social resilience.

This article aims at exploring a case of information crisis in Italy through the lens of vaccination-related topics. Such a controversial issue, dividing public opinion and political agendas, has received diverse information coverage and public policies over time in the Italian context, whose situation appears quite unique compared with other countries because of a strong media spectacularization and politicization of the topic. In particular, approval of the “Lorenzin Decree,” increasing the number of mandatory vaccinations from 4 to 10, generated a nationwide debate that divided public opinion and political parties, triggering a complex informative crisis and fostering the perception of a social emergency on social media. This resulted in negative stress on lay publics and on the public health system. The study adopted an interdisciplinary framework, including political science, public relations, and health communication studies, as well as a mixed-method approach, combining data mining techniques related to news media coverage and social media engagement, with in-depth interviews to key experts, selected among researchers, journalists, and communication managers. The article investigates reasons for the information crisis and identifies possible solutions and interventions to improve the effectiveness of public health communication and mitigate the social consequences of misinformation around vaccination.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic is triggering a public health emergency and crisis on a large scale, with far-reaching effects and severe damage to all aspects of politics, economy, cultural and social life, and health. Consecutive outbreaks over the past nearly 2 years of “living with COVID-19” have forced most schools to physically close, resulting in the largest educational disruption in human history. In turbulent times of the COVID-19 crisis, school leaders are facing numerous major challenges germane to school governance and leadership. The key objective of the study is to fully explore the prospective challenges principals are encountering in public schools in times of COVID-19. To fulfill the research purpose, a systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out to investigate the leadership challenges. As a result, a total of 24 challenges were explored through SLR approach. Frequency analysis approach was initially applied to figure out the most significant challenges. Accordingly, seven challenges were found statistically significant as showing frequency ≥ 50 each. Irrevocably, the study works as a contribution to K-12 school leadership by providing guidance for current and future leaders in crisis based on practical investigation, experiences, and recommendations. Policy makers can leverage these findings to make necessary adjustments to school policy to better prepare school leaders for crisis. Additionally, the findings of the current study are believed to have profound implications for future research. These findings expand our current understanding on school leadership in time of crisis that needs further investigation. Subsequent studies can quantitatively and/or qualitatively validate these leadership challenges findings regarding a particular school context.

First paragraphs: On the cover of our spring 2023 issue (volume 12, issue 3), Samantha and Chris Kemnah enjoy a moment with their cows on Clover Bliss Farm, their 190-acre farm in South Argyle, New York. You can read more about the Kemnahs in a 2018 article in the Hill Country Observer by Tracy Frisch entitled “An escape route from dairy farming’s crisis?” Alas, the economic pressure Frisch referred to five years ago has remained for small dairy farmers—and particularly for small organic dairy farms. Since that article was written, the consumption of fluid milk has continued to decline even as organic milk has flooded into the limited market. In 2021, Danone North America (owner of the Horizon Milk brand) cancelled contracts with dozens of small organic dairy farms in the Northeast U.S., triggering an economic crisis and calling into question Danone’s certified B Corporation status. Observers have wondered, how could a company that promotes itself as farm-friendly not offer a more engaging and deliberative process in making such a consequential business decision? But this case triggers an even larger question: while small may be beautiful, can small and middle-scale also be resilient, even in a triple bottom-line context? . . .

This review aims to analyze the function of internalization and stabilization of the monetary-finance sector for the sustainability of financial system stability during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a deep recession in the national economy and a significant drop in the capital market index. Policy uncertainty over handling the pandemic and the continued emergence of various variants of Covid-19 exacerbated economic conditions. Bank Indonesia (BI) made several monetary policies to complement the policies taken by the government to maintain sustainability during the Covid-19 pandemic. Strengthening financial stability and supporting the intermediation recovery policy strengthens the monetary sector's sustainability and stabilization so that banks do not experience excessive pressure during Covid-19 and remain profitable. These perspectives were tested in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Indonesian banking and financial stability industry has shown sustainability in the last two years. On the other hand, the competition stability in the Covid-19 pandemic approach assumes that the borrower side of the relationship must be considered. Banks can charge exorbitant interest rates in collusive markets, increasing the cost of borrowing for businesses and triggering the moral hazard problem. Specifically for ASEAN and Indonesia, as a result of the recent global financial crisis in 2020, BI implemented expansionary monetary and fiscal policies in response to the crisis to stabilize its economies.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the health, social, and economic systems, triggering lasting damage and exposing the complexity of the problem beyond just being a health emergency. This crisis has highlighted the need for a comprehensive and collaborative strategy to successfully counter infectious diseases and other global challenges. With the COVID-19 pandemic pushing One Health to the forefront of global health and sustainable development agendas, this concept has emerged as a potential approach for addressing these challenges. In the context of COVID-19, this study investigates global knowledge about One Health by examining its state, significant contributions, and future directions. It seeks to offer an integrated framework of insights guiding the development of well-informed decisions. A comprehensive search using the Scopus database was conducted, employing specific terms related to One Health and COVID-19. VOSviewer 1.6.19 software was used to generate network visualization maps. Countries’ research output was adjusted based on their gross domestic product (GDP) and population size. The study identified a total of 527 publications. The United States led with 134 documents (25.4%), but India topped the adjusted ranking. One Health journal stood as the most common outlet for disseminating knowledge (49 documents; 9.3%), while Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States emerged as the most prolific institution (13 documents; 2.5%). Key topics were related to the virus transmission mechanisms, climate change impacts, antimicrobial resistance, ecosystem health, preparedness, collaboration, community engagement, and developing of efficient surveillance systems. The study emphasizes how critical it is to capitalize on the present momentum of COVID-19 to advance One Health concepts. Integrating social and environmental sciences, and a variety of professions for better interaction and collaboration is crucial. Additionally, increased funding for developing countries, and legislative empowerment are vital to advance One Health and boost disease prevention.

In this paper, I examine the links between revanchist populism and the labor crisis in Brazil, a country with a stratified labor market where informality is prevalent among low-income, racialized groups. I analyze the struggles of street vendors for accessing urban space in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where the Worker’s Party (PT) played a key role in evicting vendors from public spaces and criminalizing their activity in the early 2000s. I focus on the connections between this initiative and a more recent “revitalization” policy that displaced street vendors from public spaces in the city center. In this context, I explore the political discourses of displaced workers during the 2018 elections that brought Bolsonaro to power. I show how the eviction stimulated antipetismo (anti-PT sentiment) among street vendors by triggering collective memories and rage against the party that “sold them out.” I argue that street vendors strongly identify as workers but are excluded from the unionized waged workingmen notion central to unions and Latin American left-wing parties. By discussing how street vendors reiterate their position as workers and not criminals, I highlight their identification with a moral notion of worker aligned with Bolsonaro’s conservative anti-crime agenda. I thus argue that support for Bolsonaro among street vendors was stimulated by the shortcomings of Brazil’s urban reform as well as the lack of appropriate policy responses to an increasingly heterogeneous and informalized workforce. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of supporting the collective struggles of non-waged workers as a path beyond revanchist populism.

The pandemic of COVID-19 has caused economic and social crisis across the world. Existing studies have shown that the uncertain social context has profoundly affected people’s life, triggering a variety of social psychological phenomena including the deterioration of mental health and the change of political behavioral patterns. However, little has been known about the differences in people’s pre-pandemic political ideology and their influences on people’s mental health and political behaviors after the pandemic. Using the secondary data from the 2018 and 2020 China Family Panel Studies, we measured nationalism tendencies, state performance ratings, social justice evaluation and life satisfaction of 29,629 adults before the pandemic. Using latent profile analysis (LPA), we examined the typologies of respondents’ political ideology and values. Five types emerged to identify respondents with different political ideology and values: (Class-1) High nationalism tendency, country evaluation, social justice perception, and life satisfaction; (Class-2) Low life satisfaction; (Class-3) Moderate ratings; (Class-4) Low nationalism tendency; and (Class-5) Low country evaluation, low social justice perception. We further explored the predicting roles of those typologies on people’s depressive symptoms and political engagement behaviors after the pandemic. We found that, after the pandemic, although the depressive symptoms of people with low life satisfaction (Class-2) and low country and society ratings (Class-5) eased, they still tended to have more severe depressive symptoms than the Moderate ratings group (Class-3). People with low life satisfaction (Class-2) were also less likely to follow political information than the moderate group (Class-3). Our research revealed how the psychology and behaviors of Chinese people with different political views changed when faced with uncertainty in social context. Further research needs to be carried out to depict how these changes occur.

India’s non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs), broadly constituting the less-regulated shadow banking sector, have been plagued with scams, triggering a domino effect in the Indian money market. Major corporate governance issues were highlighted in NBFIs with the unfurling of the ILF&S fraud; it virtually created a sub-prime crisis. In such a scenario, where the shadow banking sector was subject to change in regulations to ensure vigilance, corporate governance lapses had again led to the meltdown of Kapil Wadhawan led Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL). Registering a net profit growth of 25% in the third quarter of financial year 2017, DHFL was one of India’s leading housing finance companies with a value of whopping ₹1.01 trillion as its asset under management (AUM). The company had nose-dived from its coveted position, suffering a loss of ₹22.23 million for the last quarter of the financial year 2018–2019. The company’s credit ratings of commercial papers and non-convertible debentures were downgraded; non-payment of interests led to enforcement of resolution plan, with the board of directors acceding to nationalized banks. The company’s reputation had crashed with its share prices, amidst allegations of lookout notice issued for its promoters for siphoning funds through shell companies. The case describes the oversights and negligence of DHFL in terms of corporate governance practices in the context of the NBFC (non-banking financial company) sector. The jury is out to evaluate whether Wadhawan had followed the rules of corporate governance in letter and spirit, or the tightening noose of regulations and market sentiments around the ‘shadow banking’ sector of India spelt doom for DHFL.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the enablers and barriers influencing international knowledge transfer at the team-level in the context of product innovation within an emerging-market multinational enterprise (EMNE) in the insurance industry. Design/methodology/approach The research applies an exploratory case study design considering an emerging-market multinational insurance company headquartered in Colombia. Four subsidiaries (El Salvador, Chile, Argentina and Colombia) and the Corporate Office (headquarter) served as the research sites. It also adopts an interpretive research approach providing a grounded theory framework linking international knowledge transfer and product innovation. Findings The empirical findings emphasize the central role played by the enablers (i.e. shared vision, empathy and knowledge sources) in facilitating international knowledge transfer, which, in turn, enhances product innovation. More important, however, is the detailed explanation that the paper provides regarding the enablers’ microfoundational antecedents in terms of key activities that are performed at the team-level. Research limitations/implications The grounded theory framework was constructed using data collected in a single firm associated with a particular industry and regional context. The study only considered a single aspect of knowledge management (i.e. knowledge transfer). Other aspects of knowledge management systems, such as knowledge creation and knowledge application, should be used for explaining product innovation in EMNEs more comprehensively. Practical implications The study suggests a set of enabling conditions and activities that should be adopted by managers of EMNEs to improve international knowledge transfer with the aim of triggering product innovation. This includes the design of strategies for strengthening empathy among geographically dispersed teams by providing opportunities for regular live videoconferences among team members aimed at building close bonds, fostering trust and creating a sense of belonging in which participants get to know each other better and to establish a shared vision and a set of guiding principles and commitments for how the team will work. These suggestions are particularly important today when several multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been forced to rearrange their workplace by replacing face-to-face interactions with virtual work dynamics due to the COVID-19 crisis. Originality/value Previous studies have confirmed that international knowledge transfer positively influences MNEs’ innovative performance. However, no studies have been conducted linking both variables in the context of EMNEs in Latin America in the service sector. The research tries to fill this gap. Besides, the paper introduces empathy as a novel enabler for international knowledge transfer and a moderator able to diminish the negative effect that cultural differences and geographical barriers have on the knowledge transfer process.

ABSTRACT:Perinatal anxiety is a prevalent mental health issue with implications for the well-being of women and their children. There is a scarcity of research that considers perinatal anxiety as a standalone mental health issue or explores the lived experiences of women with perinatal anxiety. In-depth interviews were carried out with nine mothers who had a lived experience of perinatal anxiety. The women were recruited from South East Queensland, Australia, and were either pregnant and/or parenting a child under the age of five. Data from the interviews were analyzed through a process of thematic analysis to identify key themes in the lived experiences of anxious mothers. Critical feminist theory informed all the aspects of the study. Analysis of the data revealed four key themes: Good Motherhood, Warning Signs, Mental Health Literacy, and Strengths and Support, and seven subthemes: The Birthing Experience, Irritable Infants, Sleep, Breastfeeding, Social Isolation, Barriers to Help-Seeking, and Social Roles. Anxiety was found to complicate the experience of motherhood, with the pressure to present as a “good mother” resulting in a reluctance to seek help. Experiences such as birthing, feeding, and sleeping were risk factors for triggering or exacerbating anxiety. Experiences of perinatal anxiety were further complicated by poor mental health literacy and inconsistencies in the care provided by health professionals. Anxious mothers expressed a need for holistic, multidisciplinary mental healthcare, with residential options during times of struggle or crisis. Findings reveal the complex context of motherhood and mental illness and identify barriers and opportunities for the multidisciplinary mental healthcare of anxious mothers. A holistic, multidisciplinary response to perinatal anxiety is recommended.OBJECTIVE:Perinatal anxiety is a prevalent mental health issue with implications for the well-being of women and their children. There is a scarcity of research that considers perinatal anxiety as a standalone mental health issue or explores the lived experiences of women with perinatal anxiety.METHODS:In-depth interviews were carried out with nine mothers who had a lived experience of perinatal anxiety. The women were recruited from South East Queensland, Australia, and were either pregnant and/or parenting a child under the age of five. Data from the interviews were analyzed through a process of thematic analysis to identify key themes in the lived experiences of anxious mothers. Critical feminist theory informed all the aspects of the study.RESULTS CONCLUSION:Findings reveal the complex context of motherhood and mental illness and identify barriers and opportunities for the multidisciplinary mental healthcare of anxious mothers. A holistic, multidisciplinary response to perinatal anxiety is recommended.

In this review, it is discussed the prominent effect generated from aquaculture wastewater considered as the major water polluting crisis in the entire world. The cause rose due to intense development and improvement in aquaculture by the aquatic habitat species triggering quite a challenge in the environment. Scrutinizing this problem, researchers have found a way to tackle it by cultivating algal species in aquaculture wastewater in order to remove its high content of organic and inorganic pollutants. The theory proves wastewater serves as a nutrient source for algal growth and development such as phosphorous, nitrogen, and other trace elements. Besides harvesting the algal biomass from aquaculture wastewater, the extraction of lipid is also processed for biofuel production. Hence, the discussion includes conversion of wastewater into organic and inorganic pollutant-free water with low cost-effective method via algal cultivation in wastewater and high lipid yield for biofuel with a carbon-free and sustainable environment.

The paper looks at marginalization and depopulation of small towns in inland areas by envisaging a possible new Mediterranean spirit in architecture, conceiving the Apennines as a geographical line connecting the Mediterranean to Europe. According to Raffaele Nigro’s thesis, they are a line that establishes links between points, rather than oppositions. A Mediterranean consciousness, which recalls Braudel and Matvejevic, but is also aware of contemporary plagues, from climate change to migration and poly-crisis, and open to a profound knowledge of geographies and contexts, in which architecture and design help to rediscover the dimension of the livability of places, possibly breaking down the perimeters of borders. Grasping this need, the ARÌNT Master’s course has oriented its training in the direction of qualifying a professional figure capable of coordinating regeneration processes, also experimenting with on-field experiences. The course explores regeneration methods starting from certain fixed points: a transdisciplinary outlook, a trans-scalar approach to the study of contexts, weaving of territorial ties, re-appropriation of community spaces in order to build communities, re-use of disused buildings and spaces (contemplating transitory uses), and the triggering of processes.

Persistent fiscal and political mismanagement, together with the financial pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, have driven Sri Lanka into a social and economic crisis triggering a decrease in national foreign exchange reserves, an inability to purchase vital imports, and an unprecedented rise in internal inflation rates. Within the correspondingly distressed construction sector, the idea of ‘design circularity’ gains natural impetus beyond eco-system protection and responsible consumption views, as a critical strategy for responding to the material and fiscal scarcity of the country’s by-now relatively closed economy. This is also in light of the fact that the post-independence history of industrial policy in the island has produced an urban landscape characterised by large underused and increasingly derelict building stock with a significant potential - and need - to be programmatically reorganised, technically recycled, and spatially and culturally re-designed. This paper moves from the proposition that, for ‘circularity’ to be of use at the scale required, its design application must expand beyond conventional interpretations of material recycling, to acknowledge the overall building fabric as a critical, transformative resource available to be renewed or reborn, with varying degrees of reforms as called by the existing opportunities, underlying programmatic needs, and/or industrial constraints. In facilitating this function, architectural design has an important role to play, as particular sets of design strategies must be employed to handle the inevitable complexities between structure and form, material and content, and product and process, against a reflective understanding of local building logic, challenges and potential. To that end, professional design can help foster design approaches to resolve the technical intricacies of building fabric transformations, to strategise actions concerning work procurement and economic planning, and to provide the leading agency in setting up future-industry configurations. How this approach could inform and affect broad market notions of design circularity for Sri Lanka is evaluated through the review of three projects that focus on different programmatic transformations (residential-to-residential, residential-to-recreational, and commercial-to-recreational), are set within different geographical locales (city, periphery and in-between), and situated in and around Kandy, Sri Lanka’s second largest city. The projects illustrate possible tactics for intervening on the existing fabric whilst considering the benefits of each and articulating the structural challenges for the practices involved.

Collectives bring people and their concerns together. In the twenty-first century, this assembly happens across different material and virtual spaces that, together, establish connective layers of society. A kind of politics has emerged that seeks new forms of communication and expression and proposes new modes of (co)existence. Riots in the suburbs of metropolitan areas, the repair of a public village centre, railway workers’ strikes, green activists’ protests, songs in support of tsunami victims… These are some examples of collective actions that unite people and places. But very often these kinds of events and social practices take place and fade away too quickly without visible traces of becoming collectives. This article focuses on the contingent spaces that enable collective action and provide possibilities for “peripheral” concerns and communities to become public. The concept of “diasporas” is widened to permit discussion of how emerging (international) communities make their voices heard through political events. Some theoretical concepts will be illustrated, using two examples of collective action on 1 May 2009 that demonstrate different initiatives concerning the global (economic) crisis. Assembling Collectives and Affective Events Building a house/centre and singing for something: these are examples of practices that bring people and their ideals together in a collective action or event. This article discusses the different communities that evolve within spaces that enable collective action. These communities are formed not only on the basis of nationality, occupation, or race; elements of (temporal) membership are created out of a wide spectrum of affiliations and a sense of solidarity. Hinchliffe (13) argues that collective action can be seen as a collection of affects that link together disparate places and times, and thus the collective is a matter of considerable political interest. The emergent spaces of collective action publicise particular concerns that may connect already existing but (spatially) dispersed communities and diasporas. However, there is a need to discuss the affects, places, and temporalities that make the assemblage of new collectivities possible. The political potential of collective spaces needs careful elaboration in order that such initiatives may continue to grow without extending the influence of existing (capitalist) powers. Various communities connected “glocally” (locally and globally) can call new publics into existence, posing questions to politics which are not yet “of politics” (Thrift 3). Thus collective action can invent new connecting concerns and practices that catalyse (political) change in society. To understand the complex spatiality of collective action and community formations, it is crucial to look at processes of “affect”. Affects occur in society as “in-becoming” atmospheres and “imitation-suggestions” (Brennan 1-10) that stimulate concerns and motivate practices. The “imitation” can also be an invention that creatively binds existing know-how and experiences into a local-social context. Thinking about affects within the spaces of collective action provides a challenge to rethink what is referred to simply as the “social”. Massumi (228) argues that such affects are virtual expressions of the actually existing things that embody them; however, affects such as emotions and feelings are also autonomous to the degree that they exceed the particular body within which they are presently confined. The emerging bodies, or spaces, of collective action thus carry the potential to transform coexistence across both intellectual and physical boundaries, and communication technology has been instrumental in linking the affective spaces of collective action across both time and space. According to Thrift, the collision of different space-times very often provokes a “stutter” in social relations: the jolt which arises from new encounters, new connections, new ways of proceeding. But how can these turbulent spheres and trajectories of collective action be described and discussed? Here the mechanisms of “events” themselves need to be addressed. The “event” represents, abstractly, a spatio-temporal locus where different concerns and practices are encountered and negotiated. “Event” refers to an incoming, or emerging, object (agent) triggering, through various affective responses, new ideas and initiatives (Clark 33). In addition to revolutions or tsunamis, there are also smaller-scale events that change how people live and come together. In this sense, events can be understood to combine individual and social “bodies” within collective action and imaginations. As Appadurai has argued, the imagination is central to all forms of agency, is itself a social practice, and is the key component of our new global order (Appadurai 29-30). Flusty (7) argues that the production of the global is as present in our day-to-day thoughts and actions as it is in the mass movement of capital, information, and populations which means that there should be the potential to include more people in the democratic process (Whatmore). This process can be seen to be a defining characteristic of the term cosmopolitics which Thrift describes as: “one of the best hopes for changing our engagement with the political by simply acknowledging that there is more there” (Thrift 189). For many, these hopes are based on a new kind of telematic connectedness, in which tele- and digital communications represent the beginning of a global networked consciousness based on the continuous exchange of ideas, both cognitive and affective. Examples of Events and Collectives Taking Place on 1 May 2009 The first day in May is traditionally dedicated to working people, and there are many public gatherings to express solidarity with workers and left-wing (“red”) policy. Issues concerning work and various productions are complex, and recently the global economic crisis exposed some weaknesses in neoliberal capitalism. Different participatory/collective actions and spaces are formed to make some common concerns public at the same time in various locations. The two following examples are part of wider “ideoscapes” (official state ideologies and counter-ideologies) (see Appadurai) in action that help to illustrate both the workings of twenty-first century global capitalism and the translocal character of the public concern. EuroMayDay One alternative form of collective action is EuroMayDay, which has taken place on May 1 every year since 2001 in several cities across (mainly Western) Europe. For example, in 2006 a total of about 300,000 young demonstrators took part in EuroMayDay parades in 20 EU cities (Wikipedia). The purpose of this political action is “to fight against the widespread precarisation of youth and the discrimination of migrants in Europe and beyond: no borders, no workfare, no precarity!” (EuroMayDay). This manifesto indicates that the aim of the collective action is to direct public attention to the insecure conditions of immigrants and young people across Europe. These groups may be seen to constitute a kind of European “diasporic collective” in which the whole of Europe is figured as a “problem area” in which unemployment, displacement, and (possibly) destitution threaten millions of lives. In this emerging “glocality”, there is a common, and urgent, need to overcome the boundaries of exclusion. Here, the proposed collective body (EuroMayDay) is described as a process for action, thus inviting translocal public participation. The body has active nodes in (Western) Europe (Bremen, Dortmund, Geneva, Hamburg, Hanau, Lisbon, Lausanne, Malaga, Milan, Palermo, Tübingen, Zürich) and beyond (Tokyo, Toronto, Tsukuba). The collective process marks these cities on the map through a webpage offering contacts with each of the “nodes” in the network. On 1 May 2009, May Day events, or parades, took place in all the cities listed above. The “nodes” of the EuroMayDay process prepared posters and activities following some common lines, although collective action had to be performed locally in every city. By way of example, let’s look at how this collective action realised its potential in Berlin, Germany. The posters (EuroMayDay Berlin, "Call") articulate the oppressive and competitive power of capitalism which affects everyone, everyday, like a machine: it constitutes “the permanent crisis”. One’s actual or potential unemployment and/or immigrant status may cause insecurity about the future. There is also a focus on liminal or transitional time, and a call for a new collectivity to overcome oppressive forces from above that protect the interests of the State and the banks. EuroMayDay thus calls for the weaving together of different forms of resistance against a deeply embedded capitalist system and the bringing together of common concerns for the attention of the general public through the May Day parade. Another poster (EuroMayDay Berlin, "May"), depicting the May Day parade, centres around the word “KRISE?” (“crisis”). The poster ends with an optimistic call to action, expressing a desire to free capitalism from institutional oppression and recreate it in a more humanistic way. Together, these two posters represent fragments of the “ideoscope” informing the wider, collective process. In Berlin in 2009, thousands of people (mostly young) participated in the May Day parade (which started from the public square Bebelplatz), backed by a musical soundtrack (see Rudi). Some people also had posters in their hands, displaying slogans like: “For Human Rights”; “Class Struggle”; “Social Change Not Climate Change”; and “Make Capitalism a Thing of the Past”. Simultaneously, dozens of other similar parades were taking place across the cities of Europe, all bearing “accelerated affective hope” (Rosa) for political change and demanding justice in society. Unfortunately, the May Day parade in Berlin took a violent turn at night, when some demonstrators attacked police and set cars on fire. There were also clashes during demonstrations in Hamburg (Kirschbaum). The media blamed the clashes also on the economic recession and recently dashed hopes for change. The Berlin May Day parade event was covered on the EuroMayDay webpage and on television news. This collective action connected many people; some participated in the parade, and many more saw the clashes and burning cars on their screens. The destructive and critical force of the collective action brought attention to some of the problems associated with youth employment and immigration though, sadly, without offering any concrete proposals for a solution to the problem. The emotional character of the street marches, and later the street fighting, were arguably an important aspect of the collective action inasmuch as they demonstrated the potential for citizens to unite, translocally, around affective as well as material grief (a process that has been given dramatic expression in more recent times with events in Egypt, Libya, and Syria). Further, although the recent May Day events have achieved very little in terms of material results, the network remains active, and further initiatives are likely in the future. “Let’s Do It! My Estonia” On 1 May 2009, about 11,000 people participated in a public “thought-bee” in Estonia (located in north-eastern Europe in the region of the Baltic Sea) and (through the Estonian diaspora) abroad. The “thought-bee” can be understood as a civil society initiative designed to bring people together for discussion and problem-solving with regards to everyday social issues. The concept of the “bee” combines work with pleasure. The bee tradition was practised in old Estonian farming communities, when families in adjacent villages helped one another. Bees were often organised for autumn harvesting, and the intense, communal work was celebrated by offering participants food and drink. Similarly, during the Soviet era, on certain Saturdays there were organised days (obligatory) for collective working (e.g. to reconstruct sites or to pick up litter). Now the “bee” concept has become associated with brainstorming in small groups across the country as well as abroad. The number of participants in the May 1st thought-bee was relatively large, given that Estonia’s total population is only 1.4 million. The funding of the initiative combined public and private sources, e.g. Estonian Civil Society Foundation, the European Commission, and some companies. The information sheet, presented to participants of the May 1st thought-bee, explains the event’s purpose in this way: The main purpose of today’s thought-bee is to initiate as many actions as possible that can change life in Estonia for the better. My Estonia, our more enjoyable and more efficient society, will appear through smaller and bigger thoughts. In the thought-bee we think how to make life better for our own home-place... Let’s think together and do it! (Teeme Ära, "Teeme", translated from Estonian) The civil society event grew out of a collective action on 3 May 2008 to pick up and dispose of litter throughout Estonia. The thought-bee initiative was coordinated by volunteers. The emotional appeal to participate in the thought-bee event on May 1st was presented and circulated in newspapers, radio, television, Internet portals, and e-mails. Famous people called on residents to take part in the public discussion events. Some examples of arguments for the collective activity included the economic crisis, the need for new jobs, self-responsibility, environmental pressures, and the general need to learn and find communal solutions. The thought-bee initiative took place simultaneously in about 500 “thought-halls” all over Estonia and abroad. Small groups of people registered, chose main discussion topics (with many suggestions from organisers of the bee) and made their groups visible as nodes on the “initiative” webpage. Other people had the opportunity of reading several proposals from the various thought-halls and of joining as members of the public brainstorming event on 1 May. The virtual and living map of the halls presented them as (green) nodes with location, topics, members, and discussion leaders. Various sites such as schools, clubs, cultural centres, municipality buildings, and theatres became part of the multiple and synchronous “space-times” within the half-day thought-bee event. Participants in the thought-bee were asked to bring their own food to share and, in some municipalities, open concerts were held to celebrate the day. These practices indicate some continuity with the national tradition of bees, where work has always been combined with pleasure. Most “thought-halls” were located in towns and smaller local centres as well as on several Estonian islands. Moreover, these thought-halls provided for both as face-to-face and online encounters. Further, one English-speaking discussion group was organised in Tallinn so that non-Estonian speakers could also participate. However, the involvement of Russian-speaking people in the initiative remained rather limited. It is important to note that these embodied spaces of participation were also to be found outside of Estonia—in Brussels, Amsterdam, Toronto, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Prague, Baltimore, New York, and San Diego—and, in this way, the Estonian diaspora was also given the opportunity to become involved in the collective action. Following the theories of Thrift and Clark cited at the beginning of this article, it is interesting to see an event in which simultaneously connected places, embodying multiple voices, becomes part of the communal present with a shared vision of the future. The conclusions of each thought-hall discussion group were recorded on video shortly after the event. These videos were made available on the “Let’s Do It! My Estonia” webpage. The most frequently addressed topics of the thought-bee (in order of importance) were: community activities and collaboration; entrepreneurship and new jobs; education, values; free time and sport; regional development; rural life; and the environment and nature conservation (PRAXIS). The participants of the collective action were aware of the importance of local as well as national initiatives as a catalyst for change. The initiative “Let’s Do It! My Estonia” continued after the events of May Day 2009; people discussed issues and suggested proposals through the “initiative” webpage and supported the continuation of the collective action (Teeme Ära, "Description"). Environmental concerns (e.g. planting trees, reducing noise, and packaging waste) appear as important elements in these imaginings along with associated other practices for the improvement of daily life. It is important to understand the thought-bee event as a part of an emerging collective action that started with a simple litter clean-up and grew, through various other successful local community initiatives, into shared visions for a better future predicated upon the principles of glocality and coexistence. The example indicates that (international) NGOs can apply, and also invent, radical information politics to change the terms of debate in a national context by providing a voice for groups and issues that would otherwise remain unheard and unseen (see also Atkinson and Scurrah 236-44). Conclusions The collective actions discussed above have created new publics and contingent spaces to bring additional questions and concerns into politics. In both cases, the potential of “the event” (as theorised in the introduction of this article) came to the foreground, creating an additional international layer of temporal connectivity between many existing social groups such as unemployed young people or members of a village union. These events were both an “outcome” of, and an attempt to change, the involuntary exclusion of certain “peripheral” groups within the melting pot that the European Union has become. As such, they may be thought of as extending the concept of “diasporas” to include emerging platforms of collective action that aim to make problematic issues visible and multiple voices heard across the wider public. This, in turn, illustrates the need to rethink diasporas in the context of the intensive de-territorialisation of human concerns, “space-times and movement-trajectories yet to (be)come” (Braziel and Mannur 18). Both the examples of collective action discussed here campaigned for “changing the world” through a one-day event and may thus be understood in terms of Rosa’s theory of “social acceleration” (Rosa). This theory shows how both to the “contraction of the present” and the general instability of contemporary life have given rise to a newly affective desire to improve life through an expression of the collective will. Such a tendency can clearly take on far more radical forms as has been recently demonstrated by the mass protests and revolts against autocratic ruling powers in Egypt, Libya, and Syria. In this article, however, cosmopolitics is better understood in terms of the particular skills (most evident in the Estonian case) and affective spheres that mobilised in suggestions to bring about local action and global change. Together, these examples of collective action are part of a wider “ideoscape” (Appadurai) trying to reduce the power of capitalism and of the state by encouraging alternative forms of collective action that are not bound up solely with earning money or serving the state as a “salient” citizen. However, it could be argued that “EuroMayDay” is ultimately a reactionary movement used to highlight the oppressive aspects of capitalism without offering clear alternatives. By contrast, “Let’s Do It! My Estonia” has facilitated interactive public discussion and the practice of local skills that have the power to improve everyday life and the environment in a material and quantifiable way. Such changes in collective action also illustrate the speed and “imitative capacity stimulating expressive interactions” that now characterise everyday life (Thrift). Crucially, both these collective events were achieved through rapid advances in communication technologies in recent times; this technology made it possible to spread know-how as well as feelings of solidarity and social contact across the world. Further research on these fascinating developments in g/local politics is clearly urgently needed to help us better understand the changes in collective action currently taking place. Acknowledgements This research was supported by Estonian Science Foundation grant SF0130008s07 and by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Center of Excellence CECT). References Appadurai, Arjun. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader. Ed. Jana Evans Braziel and Anita Mannur. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. 25-48. Atkinson, Jeffrey, and Martin Scurrah. Globalizing Social Justice: The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Bringing about Social Change. New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2009. Braziel, Jana Evans, and Anita Mannur. “Nation, Migration, Globalisation: Points of Contention in Diaspora Studies.” Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader. Eds. Jana Evans Braziel and Anita Mannur. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. 1-18. Brennan, Teresa. The Transmission of Affect. London: Continuum, 2004. Clark, Nigel. “The Play of the World.” Using Social Theory: Thinking Through Research. Eds. Michael Pryke, Gillian Rose, and Sarah Whatmore. London: Sage, 2003. 28-46. EuroMayDay. “What Is EuroMayDay?” 23 May 2009. ‹http://www.euromayday.org/about.php›. EuroMayDay Berlin. “Call of May Parade.” 3 Aug. 2009. ‹http://maydayberlin.blogsport.de/aufruf/text-only/›. EuroMayDay Berlin. “May Parade Poster.” 3 Aug. 2009. ‹http://maydayberlin.blogsport.de/propaganda/›. Flusty, Steven. De-Coca-Colonization. Making the Globe from the Inside Out. New York: Routledge, 2004. Hinchliffe, Steve. Geographies of Nature: Societies, Environments, Ecologies. London: Sage, 2007. Kirschbaum, Erik. “Police Hurt in May Day Clashes in Germany.” Reuters, 3 Aug. 2009. ‹http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5401UI20090501›. Massumi, Brian. “The Autonomy of Affect.” Deleuze: A Critical Reader. Ed. Paul Patton. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997. 217-39. PRAXIS. “Minu Eesti mõttetalgute ideede tähtsamad analüüsitulemused” (Main analysing results about ideas of My Estonia thought-bee). 26 Oct. 2009. ‹http://www.minueesti.ee/index.php?leht=6&mID=949›. Rosa, Hartmut. “Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences of a Desynchronised High-Speed Society.” Constellations 10 (2003): 1-33. Rudi 5858. “Mayday-Parade-Demo in Berlin 2009.” 3 Aug. 2009. ‹http://wn.com/Rudi5858›. Teeme Ära. “Teeme Ära! Minu Eesti” (Let’s Do It! My Estonia). Day Program of 1 May 2009. Printed information sheet, 2009. Teeme Ära. “Description of Preparation and Content of Thought-bee.” 20 Apr. 2009. ‹http://www.minueesti.ee/?leht=321›. Thrift, Nigel. Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics and Affect. London: Routledge, 2008. Whatmore, Sarah. “Generating Materials.” Using Social Theory: Thinking Through Research. Eds. Michael Pryke, Gillian Rose and Sarah Whatmore. London: Sage, 2003. 89-104. Wikipedia. “EuroMayDay.” 23 May 2009. ‹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroMayDay›.