The COVID‐19 crisis is a stark reminder that modern society is vulnerable to a special species of trouble: the creeping crisis. The creeping crisis poses a deep challenge to both academics and practitioners. In the crisis literature, it remains ill‐defined and understudied. It is even harder to manage. As a threat, it carries a potential for societal disruption—but that potential is not fully understood. An accumulation of these creeping crises can erode public trust in institutions. This paper proposes a definition of a creeping crisis, formulates research questions, and identifies the most relevant theoretical approaches. It provides the building blocks for the systematic study of creeping crises.
Lately, scholars have been engaging in studies on the crossroads between collaborative public management and crisis management, but our knowledge on how organizations work together with interorganizational goals in times of crisis or in relation to the threat that crises pose, is still limited. This study aims to illuminate how interagency horizontal collaboration plays out in practice. An interview study with twenty‐three Swedish duty officers in three organizations with critical tasks in the institutional crisis management system is carried out to unearth impediments to interagency collaboration that emerge when organizations from different policy subsystems engage in crisis collaboration. Empirically, the study contributes with new knowledge on how a crucial function in crisis management carries out work and deals with challenges. Theoretically, it contributes to the literature on crisis management collaboration by shedding light on processes of horizontal collaboration in the area of crisis management.
This article analyses the underlying structures that contribute to the boundaries of appropriate behavior in global Disaster Risk Management (DRM). Understood as a policy field committed to mitigating the effects of natural hazards and assisting states in responding to disasters, international dimensions of DRM have received increased attention by academics and practitioners. Yet, little reflection has been made on the ideational structures that define this field. Based on a discourse analysis on key texts, this study argues that three dominant categories—a humanitarian ethics of care, scientific rationality and sovereignty—demarcate the boundaries of cooperation on DRM. Understanding the relationship between these categories is considered vital for reflecting on the current and future trajectory of this important policy field.
It is well recognized that contemporary crisis call for collaborative efforts across both organizational and jurisdictional boundaries. One of the key challenges for governments and public authorities responsible for organizing crisis management is to find adequate ways in which they can support decentralized and collaborative responses. This effort can be analyzed through the meta‐governance approach that suggests that different instruments can be used to support decentralized collaborative efforts. This article analyzes the management of crisis communication in Sweden and the implementation of a new national Security Communications System (SCS) as a specific case of meta‐governance. The main finding suggests that meta‐governance may be impaired by combining different types of governance (sovereignty, markets, or network management) due to competing rationality invested in each governance style. The deadlock was, however, resolved by direct involvement and increased deliberation between the meta‐governors and the end users as it generated a shared understanding of crisis management and the utility of a single SCS. Besides identifying the importance of direct involvement in terms of network management the article also suggests that meta‐governors need to develop a deeper and more sensitive understanding of the self‐organizing nature of networks in order to be able to support collaborative crisis management
It is well recognized that contemporary crisis call for collaborative efforts across both organizational and jurisdictional boundaries. One of the key challenges for governments and public authorities responsible for organizing crisis management is to find adequate ways in which they can support decentralized and collaborative responses. This effort can be analyzed through the meta-governance approach that suggests that different instruments can be used to support decentralized collaborative efforts. This article analyzes the management of crisis communication in Sweden and the implementation of a new national Security Communications System (SCS) as a specific case of meta-governance. The main finding suggests that meta-governance may be impaired by combining different types of governance (sovereignty, markets, or network management) due to competing rationality invested in each governance style. The deadlock was, however, resolved by direct involvement and increased deliberation between the meta-governors and the end users as it generated a shared understanding of crisis management and the utility of a single SCS. Besides identifying the importance of direct involvement in terms of network management the article also suggests that meta-governors need to develop a deeper and more sensitive understanding of the self-organizing nature of networks in order to be able to support collaborative crisis management.
Many countries in the “Global North” that have enjoyed relative food security for a number of decades now face challenges that may lead to disturbances in food supplies. Global markets and global flows are not as self-evident as they were a few years ago and new modes of governance for managing national food security during crisis are required. Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic have further showed that global production systems and communications are fragile to a range of different disturbances. This article examines the possibility of managing national food security through collaborative arrangements between public authorities and private food companies through a case study of the Swedish approach to food security. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework that highlights the importance of motivation, leadership, shared understanding, and trust as four dimensions that evaluate collaborative governance in precrisis situations. We conclude that although a broader understnding of the importance of food security has emerged, collaborative governance arrangements run the risk of creating only an illusion of readiness, due to unclear mandates and clear leadership not able to advance trust, legal structures, or concrete agreements for ensuring national food security.
What mechanisms link external events to policy change in a policy subsystem? Thispaper responds to this question by offering a nuanced re-conceptualization ofexternal events and by identifying the mechanisms that link disruptive crises topolicy change. Building from the tenets of the advocacy coalition framework and asynthesis of the crisis management and policy change literatures, this paper (1)introduces the concept of policy and geographical proximity as a means to showhow different types of crises alter the incentives for policy action within policysubsystems; (2) discusses an integrated set of proposals on how geographical andpolicy proximity affects the prospects of change in a policy subsystem; and (3)presents hypothesized scenarios outlining plausible intervening pathways linking acrisis to changes as contingent on policy subsystem structures.
The parallel universe of cyberspace, created by computer networks, ones, and zeros, has changed the rules of the game. It would be inevitable for crisis management research to remain unaffected by the new challenges arising. The present article delves into the underexplored concept of cyber crises, by initiating an academic problematization of crisis conceptualization. Drawing from transboundary crisis management theory, it examines two major cyberattacks, the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack and the 2016 hacking of the DNC, and explores an empirical puzzle: why are these cases not characterized as crises even though they fit already existing definitions? The article contributes to the theory of transboundary crises by shedding light on previously overlooked cyber crisis characteristics and attempting to propose a definition of cyber crises. The way we perceive crises has a direct impact on how we manage them. Broadening the research agenda and understanding the concept of a cyber crisis could pave the way for a more effective and proactive response to new threats, which is what the following pages attempt to demonstrate.