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Zwei Drittel des heutigen Welthandels gründen auf globalen Wertschöpfungsketten und Versorgungsnetzen. Rein regionalwirtschaftlich organisierte Lieferketten haben in den letzten Jahrzehnten an Bedeutung verloren. Die Auswirkungen dieser globalisierten Strukturen sind vielfältig: Zum einen haben sie beschäftigungsfördernde Effekte und wirken wohlstandsstiftend. Zum anderen existieren entlang der Lieferketten extreme soziale, ökologische und ökonomische Schieflagen. Die COVID-19-Pandemie zeigt in erheblichem Maße, wie fragil bestehende Lieferkettensysteme sind. Der Lockdown unterbricht noch immer komplexe Lieferketten und viele Probleme der bestehenden Produktions- und Konsumweise verschärfen sich weiterhin. COVID-19 ist ein Beispiel einer der möglichen Krisen, welche die globalen und vernetzten Wertschöpfungsketten kurzfristig erschüttern kann. Andere Krisen entwickeln sich schleichender und damit weniger schnell erkennbar, wie etwa der globale Klimawandel. So unterschiedlich sie sind, haben die Krisen eines gemein: Sie zeigen die Verletzlichkeit globaler Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsstrukturen auf und verdeutlichen die Wirkungen globalen Handels auf die Regionen und Menschen der Welt. Die globale Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie setzt genau hier an - sie zielt darauf ab, Unterschiede und Ungleichheit in Chancen und Lebensqualität grundlegend zu vermindern. Deshalb sollte die Umsetzung der Nachhaltigkeitsziele auf internationaler, nationaler und regionaler Ebene eine Antwort auf solche Krisen sein. Da durch die Covid-19-Pandemie zeitgleich die komplette Welt in eine Umbruchsituation gedrängt wurde, bietet die Reaktion darauf an, Nachhaltigkeit als zentrale politische Resilienz-Strategie zu nutzen. Im Zuge der Corona-Pandemie flammte die Diskussion um resiliente Kommunen auf. Diese sollten sich stärker an regional- und kreislaufwirtschaftlichen Ansätzen orientieren, um angesichts solcher Pandemien die Versorgung weiterhin gewährleisten zu können. So wichtig und richtig die E

After more than a decade of consecutive crises, the issue of transnational solidarity is becoming increasingly relevant for the European Union. This research note compares the current coronavirus disease-2019 crisis to previous ones and investigates the willingness of European Union citizens to show solidarity towards fellow member states. We test the influence of socio-political attitudes of citizens on solidarity preferences in three crisis scenarios. We analyse Greece and Germany as cases differently affected by the past decade's crises and cases that chose different crisis management strategies when facing the novel virus. Our findings indicate that solidarity is highest in a pandemic, while for all crisis scenarios it is higher in Greece than in Germany. Despite variations in the degree of solidarity associated relationships with socio-political attitudes remain consistent.

Krisen sind nicht vorhersehbar und immer wieder anders. Und dennoch: Durch Prüfung der Folgen vorheriger Krisen lässt sich Krisenmanagement verbessern und anhand vorausschauender Politik ihr zerstörender Effekt reduzieren. Dies ist gerade angesichts der Zunahme und Gleichzeitigkeit komplexer Krisen wie der derzeitigen Energie-, Nahrungsmittel-, Umwelt- und Gesundheitskrise sowie des russischen Angriffskriegs gegen die Ukraine fundamental. Helfen könnte dabei die zentrale Zusammenführung von Erkenntnissen krisenhafter Entwicklungen und deren Einbettung in einer Nationalen Sicherheitsstrategie.

Crises cannot be predicted. But that is no excuse for being unprepared. By evaluating how previous crises were handled, governments can improve future crisis management and give it strategic footing. This paper presents reforms based on past experience, and it shows how they might fit into Germany's planned National Security Strategy (NSS). As such, it rethinks the relationship between crisis response and strategy.

Text in englischer, Abstracts in englischer und deutscher Sprache, In federal states, intergovernmental councils were the main institutions through which the federal government and the constituent units coordinated their responses to COVID-19. To examine whether peak councils assumed a leading role during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure cross-sectoral as well as intergovernmental coordination, this article compares the role of two “peak councils”—the Conference of Premiers (MPK) in Germany and the Conference of Cantonal Governments (KdK) in Switzerland—with sectoral councils in normal times and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis relies on an original database of more than 900 council outputs based on which we compare the level of activity, the publicity, the direction of action, and the bindingness of outputs. The findings show that MPK took a leading role during the pandemic, a role that was indeed unusual when compared to normal times, while KdK, which likewise does not play a leading role in normal times, did not during the pandemic either. Im Umgang föderaler Staaten mit der COVID-19-Pandemie spielten intergouvernementale Regierungskonferenzen eine zentrale Rolle. Anhand des Vergleichs der deutschen Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz (MPK) und der schweizerischen Konferenz der Kantonsregierungen (KdK) mit den politikfeldspezifischen Minister- beziehungsweise Direktorenkonferenzen untersucht dieser Beitrag, inwiefern die MPK und die KdK während der COVID-19-Pandemie eine herausragende Rolle einnahmen, um so sowohl sektorenübergreifende Koordination als auch die Zusammenarbeit der Regierungsebenen sicherzustellen. Anhand eines eigens erhobenen Datensatzes von mehr als 900 Beschlüssen und Pressemitteilungen werden Aktivität, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Ausrichtung und die politische Bindungswirkung der Beschlüsse einer vergleichenden Analyse unterzogen. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass der MPK während der Pandemie in der Tat eine zentrale, vom Normalmodus abweichende Bedeutung zukam. Innerhalb des schweizerischen Konferenzgefüges nahm di

Diese Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkungen einer Pandemie und das Gegensteuern durch mehrere Maßnahmen im Rahmen der Krisenbewältigung am Beispiel des Bundesministeriums für Inneres. Die Gesundheitspandemie beschäftigt die Organisation des BMI schon über 2 Jahre. Es wurde eine Zeitenwende in der Dienstverrichtung seit Beginn der Pandemie eingeläutet. Home-Office ist hier das omnipräsente Thema nicht nur im privaten Sektor, sondern auch im öffentlichen Sektor. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es die Mobilitätssteigerung im Bereich der Verwaltung zu skizzieren. Die Stichproben der erhobenen Daten stammen aus 221 Rückmeldungen eines Online-Fragebogens und 5 durchgeführten Experteninterviews. Die draus gewonnenen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Organisation zur Bekämpfung der Pandemie Adaptierungen in diversen Bereichen vorgenommen hat.*****This thesis examines the effects of a pandemic and the crisis management measures taken by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Within the 2 years, where the BMI has had to deal with this health pandemic, a paradigm shift has taken place in duty performance since the beginning. The shift to Home-Office is one of the main themes of resilience enhancement in all sectors. The aim of this paper is to outline the mobility increase in the administrative sector. The samples of the collected data stem from 221 responses of an online questionnaire and 5 conducted expert interviews. The results obtained show that the organization has made adaptions in various areas to combat the pandemic.

Covid-19 has emerged as a bifurcate public health, political and economic crisis of global extent. In order to respond to the continuously changing circumstances of the crisis, a variety of policies have been implemented by governments and policymakers across the world. This study is aimed at exploring how institutional and politico-administrative contexts in an Europe-wide comparison influence policy responses to address the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, the study assesses how fundamental socioeconomic indicators developed under these extraordinary conditions. The results of the conducted comparative case study based on secondary data, reveal that different politico-administrative circumstances and institutional contexts account for different policy responses to the same threat, but also discover noteworthy similarities in addressing the pandemic. Additionally, the study illustrates that the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated political reactions caused serious socioeconomic implications. Overall, this thesis aims to create a better understanding of how institutional, political and administrative contexts influence and shape responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the ultimate goal of enhancing learning potential for any new developments during the Covid-19 crisis as well as for future application purposes., Masterarbeit Universität Innsbruck 2022

Vor dem Hintergrund der zunehmenden Auswirkungen der Klimakrise und der durch den Angriffskriegs Russlands gegen die Ukraine entstandenen Energie- und Rohstoffversorgungsprobleme ist die Bundesregierung zu einem schnellen und zielführenden Handeln gezwungen. Neben der Herstellung von Versorgungssicherheit müssen die durch stark steigende Energie- und Lebensmittelpreise entstehenden sozialen Härten abgefedert werden. Um diese Aufgabe bestmöglich zu bewältigen, bedarf es eines politischen Instruments, das notwendige Veränderungen der Lebens- und Wirtschaftsweise ermöglicht und soziale Belastungen in den Krisen auffängt. Mit Blick auf diese Problemstellung werden in diesem Wuppertal Report bereits vorhandene politische Instrumente, deren Mittel nicht zweckgebunden verwendet werden müssen, einer SWOT-Analyse unterzogen und erste Ideen für ein sogenanntes Transformationsgeld vorgestellt, das die Mehrdimensionalität der derzeitigen Problemlage berücksichtigt. Das Transformationsgeld ist als zweckungebundene staatliche Transferleistung konzipiert, um die Freiheit der Konsument*innen nicht einzuschränken und Preiseffekte nicht zu nivellieren. Die Höhe der Transferleistung hängt von der ökonomischen Situation des Haushalts ab und soll nicht nur eine Kompensation der Mehrkosten darstellen, sondern gesellschaftliche Teilhabe ermöglichen. Abseits des Transformationsgelds liefert die Kurzstudie auch eine Einschätzung der Autor*innen, was aus ihrer Sicht kurzfristig gegen die bestehenden Probleme getan werden sollte.

COVID-19 affected the entire world, culminating in a devastating worldwide disaster. The crisis had a major impact on Indonesia, both in terms of health and economic concerns. As economic support in Indonesia, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are also impacted. This study was carried out in the West Java Province, including respondents among MSME actors. The aim of this study was to see how entrepreneurial resilience and self-efficacy affected company performance during the COVID-19 crisis. To assess the connection between variables, this research technique uses a quantitative methodology. The partial least squares path modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to validate the model's hypothesis, which is based on its association in a literature study done by numerous prior researchers. The findings of this study show that, as compared to entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial resilience has a substantial impact on MSME company performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the evaluation of the results of the research on the resilience of MSME owners, it must be supported by external variables such as government policies.

The healthcare systems of almost every country have been facing an unprecedented crisis since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. In response, numerous countries have designed and launched their unique applications to inform their citizens about COVID-19 and to follow their health situation. While South Korea has been showing an effective fight against COVID-19, Turkey is one of the most affected ones by the virus. This paper aims to identify key differences and similarities between the contact tracing apps that are used by Turkey and South Korea during COVID-19. In this way, it addresses how two members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), one developing (Turkey) and other developed (South Korea) countries, integrated their public policies and crisis management responses with the mobile phone applications and at what scale they are successful. Also, this paper investigates how these differences/similarities between their applications have affected their paths in the pandemic. Comparing their applications, it discusses policy-making processes, technological differences, and contact tracing strategies with policy recommendations for other countries.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease that was first recognized in China in late 2019. Among the primary effects caused by the pandemic, there was the dissemination of health preventive measures such as physical distancing, travel restrictions, self-isolation, quarantines, and facility closures. This includes the global disruption of socio-economic systems including the postponement or cancellation of various public events (e.g., sporting, cultural, or religious), supply shortages and fears of the same, schools and universities closure, evacuation of foreign citizens, a rise of unemployment, changes in the international aid schemes, misinformation, and incidents of discrimination toward people affected by or suspected of having the COVID-19 disease. The pandemic has brought to the fore unpreparedness in critical areas that require attention, amid prospects and challenges. Moreover, considerable reorganization efforts are required with implications for assets, resources, norms, and value systems. COVID-19 is challenging the concept of globalization and stimulating responses at the levels of local and regional socio-economic systems that lead to the mobilization of assets that have been unrecognized earlier on, such as various forms of economic capital, social capital, cultural capital, human capital, and creative capital. For example, through digital channels, local groups are forming to create schemes of support for physical and mental wellbeing. These emerging exchanges lead to various social and technological innovations by building on skills and assets that are less important in the free-market economy, such as empathy, skills for crafts, making and fixing; locally grown microgreens; and micromanufacturing. Isolation and local living are also making it much harder to ignore the civic responsibilities towards communities, meant as individuals, vulnerable groups, and local businesses. Whilst the pand

As a region, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the world's largest grain importer. Approximately 30 per cent of global exports of wheat and barley, 20 per cent of corn, and a whopping three-quarters of sunflower oil come from Ukraine and Russia. The aggression against Ukraine is thus disrupting global food trade and affecting food security in the MENA. The war is also raising questions about future food systems and their water footprint. In the Arab world, dependence on Ukraine and Russia for imports of wheat, the world's largest source of calories, is at 50 per cent - among the highest globally. The greatest vulnerability exists in Egypt, Lebanon, and Sudan. Imports will actually need to rise from pre-war levels if population growth and dietary changes towards meat and dairy products are taken into consideration. For lack of water, food self-sufficiency is not an option in the MENA. Food imports constitute "virtual water" - that is, the water used to produce a commodity and thus embedded in it. Virtual water can be imported by MENA countries via the food trade and has mitigated water scarcity by adding a "second Nile River" to the region's water balance. The global food crisis of 2007/2008 spurred MENA countries to attempt to alleviate their import vulnerabilities bilaterally, via investments in land and in value chains, but reliance on the multilateral international trading system remains. The reaction to the current crisis can build on lessons learnt since then, with coping capacities unevenly distributed between the region's richer oil exporters and poorer countries. Avoiding new export restrictions such as those that occurred during the global food crisis of 2007/2008 is crucial. Western attempts to stabilise the multilateral food trade could help the MENA to source alternative supplies. This might also offer an opportunity to mend fences between the West and MENA at a time when closer energy cooperation is essential and an ambivalent stance in the MEN

Ao longo do ano de 2020, a COVID-19 se tornou um fator dominante na política e mídia alemãs. As primeiras percepções dos representantes do governo declaradas em janeiro de 2020, de que o novo vírus seria de importância mínima, foram rapidamente substituídas por uma série de medidas para proteger a população do que foi então oficialmente declarado uma pandemia. No final de fevereiro de 2020, o Ministro da Saúde alemão Jens Spahn e o Ministro do Interior Horst Seehofer formaram o primeiro grupo de gerenciamento da crise para tratar dos desafios que estavam por vir. Quando medidas oficiais começaram a restringir direitos civis e forçaram as empresas a fechar temporariamente, movimentos de protesto apareceram em diferentes partes do país. Mobilizada através de campanhas online e canais de mídias sociais, parte da população da classe média alemã formou grupos de protesto e viajou pelo país para participar de um crescente número de eventos de protesto. Em agosto de 2020, a capital alemã, Berlim, se tornou o palco de manifestações políticas organizadas por grupos regionais e relativamente desconhecidos de indivíduos com agendas políticas diversas. Aglomerações de até 40.000 cidadãos de diferentes origens ocorreram, nas quais os participantes se articulavam criticamente com relação às medidas políticas e legais tomadas pelo governo para tratar da crise causada pela COVID-19. O objetivo deste artigo é oferecer um panorama inicial desse movimento de protestos estabelecido recentemente que, em poucos meses, se desenvolveu de grupos regionais de protestos da classe média para um caso de monitoramento da agência de segurança doméstica alemã.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant policy challenges in developing countries, where operational resources and policy capacity are limited. Yet, some developing countries have fared better than others, and part of this success seems to be attributable to the use of prudent policy instruments within a policy mix that exhibits coherence. This article presents a COVID-19 case study of Pakistan and considers the following aspects of Pakistan's policy mix: (1) polio and rural support infrastructure deployed for COVID-19 detection and awareness-creation; (2) the establishment of a national command and operation center (NCOC) to centralize real-time decision-making; (3) the use of the largest income support program to generate a targeted pro-poor stimulus; and (4) optimally targeted (smart) lockdowns. The findings suggest that developing countries can adjust sound policy responses to pandemic conditions despite their resource constraints, by calibrating extant policy instruments and mobilizing new ones within a coherent policy mix.

Background and aims of this position paper: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it has become ever clearer that it poses an enormous challenge for society. The lockdown imposed on large parts of public life, which hit all social groups and institutions relatively abruptly with a wide range of impacts, as well as the measures adopted subsequently have resulted in radical changes in our living conditions. In some cases, the crisis has acted as an accelerator of trends affecting processes that were already ongoing: the digitalisation of communications and educational processes, the growth in working from home and mobile working arrangements, the expansion of online retail, changes in travel behaviour (in favour of cars and bicycles), and the establishment of regional service networks. At the same time, there has been a braking effect on sectors such as long-distance travel, global trade, trade fairs and cultural events, as well as on progress towards gender equality in the division of labour for household responsibilities and childcare. Socio-spatial, infrastructural, economic and ecological effects are becoming increasingly apparent. For those involved in spatial development and spatial planning, urgent questions arise not only about the weaknesses that have become apparent in our spatial uses in terms of infrastructure and public service provision, the economy and ecology, and in our ways of life in terms of housing and the supply of goods and services, but also about what opportunities have emerged for sustainable and self-determined lifestyles. What conclusions for anticipatory and preventive planning can be drawn from these (provisional) findings? Using a critical, multidisciplinary and integrative examination of the spatially-relevant effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper establishes connections between the crisis management of today and crisis preparedness concepts for potential future pandemics. Building on that, it proposes corresponding recommended acti

Krisen erschüttern die Routinen des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenlebens. Zugleich offenbaren sie, wie Gesellschaften funktionieren, zu welchen Anpassungsleistungen sie fähig sind und über welche Ressourcen sie verfügen. Die Coronakrise hat gezeigt, wie moderne Gesellschaften auf Gesundheitskrisen reagieren und zur Bewältigung mannigfaltige Technologien einsetzen, um in einer Situation der gegenseitigen Bedrohung ihr weiteres Funktionieren sicherzustellen. Der Band widmet sich dieser Rolle von Technologien der Krise in einer theoretischen, normativen und empirischen Perspektive und versammelt Beiträge aus Soziologie, Computer Science, Ethik und Gesundheitswissenschaft.

Since coming to power in December, the Scholz government has blundered into a series of foreseeable crises: medical shortages; reliance on Russia for gas; Ukraine's need for robust support. France's President Macron anticipated all three crises, giving weight to his calls for Europeans to pursue autonomy and reduce dependence on the outside world. Policy makers are now demanding scenario exercises that illustrate the obvious dangers of interdependency to back up their policy shift.

The Covid-19 crisis has intensified already existing social inequalities in different spheres. The book examines how fundamental and sustainable the social changes over the course of the pandemic will be at the social levels of labour, care work, and state regulation, emphasizing their gender dimensions. The contradictory organisation of labour and life under capitalist conditions and their gender relations is particularly visible in the service sector as well as in the sectors of health, care and childcare. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the social recognition of these previously devalued activities has risen to new heights. However, gestures of symbolic acknowledgements do not meet with comprehensive material recognition. So how (strongly) do processes of recognition and appropriation in system-relevant professions actually change in times of social crisis and what role do gender relations play?

Der Beitrag widmet sich den Argumentationsstrategien in der Debatte über das föderale Krisenmanagement in der Covid-19-Pandemie. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Frage, inwiefern die landespolitischen Akteure die bundesstaatliche Ordnung als Gelegenheitsstruktur in dieser Debatte für opportunistische Argumentationsstrategien nutzen oder im Sinne des bundesfreundlichen Verhaltens auf kooperative, solidarische Normen rekurrieren. Für die empirische Analyse wurden die Landtagsdebatten über 202 Regierungserklärungen und Unterrichtungen der Landesregierungen zwischen Februar 2020, als die ersten Covid-19-Infektionen in Deutschland registriert wurden, und der Bundestagswahl am 26. September 2021 inhaltsanalytisch kodiert und ausgewertet. Der Datensatz umfasst 4.360 kodierte Textstellen. Die Befunde veranschaulichen zum einen parteipolitische Unterschiede, die sich nicht nur auf den Gegensatz zwischen Regierung und Opposition zurückführen lassen. Zum anderen weisen die Daten darauf hin, dass die Normen des bundesfreundlichen Verhaltens - auch in der Krise und trotz der Wahlkämpfe - opportunistische Argumentationsstrategien einhegen, jedoch nicht verhindern, und ihre Wirksamkeit mit abnehmender Unterstützung der Eindämmungsmaßnahmen durch die Bevölkerung nachlässt., This contribution focuses on the discursive strategies in the political debate on the federal management of the Covid-19 crisis in Germany. It scrutinizes the extent to which sub-national actors make use of federal structures to pursue opportunistic discursive strategies and how they refer to the cooperative, solidary norms of "comity" (Bundestreue). For the empirical analysis, the study draws on parliamentary debates in the 16 regional parliaments in Germany and analyzes which arguments the speakers use to legitimize the measures against Covid-19. The arguments are captured through a novel dataset that contains 4,360 statements made in 202 parliamentary debates between February 2020 and September 2021. The data reveal partisan differences that cannot be solely reduced to the government-opposition divide. The analysis shows that while norms of comity inherent in cooperative federalism can constrain opportunistic strategies, they do not prevent them - especially when the public support of the measures against Covid-19 declines.

The health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic highlights, more than ever, the necessity of scientific research to inform policy action. During such a crisis it is vital that any measures taken by policy makers mitigate the consequences of risks without causing long-lasting social and economic harm. Spatial aspects play an important role here: knowledge about the spread of a disease through space and social networks, the effectiveness of different policy responses, and the economic and social implications for the population are of particular relevance. As any policy action is embedded in its institutional and social environment, not every measure is effective in all contexts. Moreover, infectious diseases can spread at different speed in different places, requiring tailored interventions. Careful evaluation and comparison of different settings, including the organization of the healthcare systems and the geographic and demographic characteristics of a region or country, is therefore essential. The COVID-19 pandemic has made manifest the importance of the spatial and geographical dimension of health, however, the relevance of this interlinkage is not limited to the spread of contagious diseases. Differences in accessibility of services between urban and rural regions, the varying costs of access to healthcare for different (socioeconomic) groups of the population, the impact of these on healthcare utilization, and environmental shocks on population health are just a few examples illustrating the close link between space, socioeconomic factors and health. This special issue of REGION is presented in two parts. In the first part, papers explore the spread and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and economy. In the second part, papers investigate regional and spatial aspects of the healthcare sector with a focus on health disparities.

In the past decades, Germany was hit - in equal measure to other countries in Europe and beyond - by multiple transboundary and societal crises. We take stock of the ability of the German state to cope with the ensuing complexity in managing these exceptional situations. Conceptually, we apply a systemic perspective that asks about the resilience of the German state in the subsystems of policymaking in crises, implementation of administrative crisis management, as well as societal responses to crises. The paper draws on findings from a range of empirical studies assembled in this special issue, that focus either on the so-called refugee crisis of 2015/16 or the Covid-19 pandemic since 2020. Strikingly, the overall impression emerging from this research is generally favorable of the ability of the German politico-administrative system to master challenging crises - its resilience. But there are also areas for improvement., In den vergangenen Jahrzehnten erlebte Deutschland - vergleichbar zu anderen Ländern in Europa und der Welt - eine Vielzahl grenzüberschreitender und gesellschaftlicher Krisen. Wir legen hier eine Bestandsaufnahme vor, wie gut Deutschland die Komplexität dieser außergewöhnlichen Situationen im Krisenmanagement bewältigte. Wir nehmen hierbei eine systemische Perspektive ein, indem wir die Resilienz Deutschlands in den Subsystemen des Policy-Making in Krisen, der administrativen Implementation des Krisenmanagements sowie der gesellschaftlichen Reaktionen auf die Krise untersuchen. Der Beitrag verarbeitet die Ergebnisse einer Reihe empirischer Studien, die in diesem Themenschwerpunkt zusammengestellt wurden. Diese beziehen sich entweder auf die so genannte Flüchtlingskrise von 2015/16 oder auf die Covid-19 Pandemie seit 2020. Die vorgestellte Forschung zeichnet einen positiven Gesamteindruck hinsichtlich der Fähigkeit Deutschlands, die Krisen zu bewältigen - und somit auf seine Resilienz. Es gibt jedoch noch Raum für Verbesserungen.

Eine systematische Nutzung von RS-Daten ermöglicht durch Hinzunahme einer räumlichen Dimension eine bessere Beantwortung der Evaluierungsfragen. In diesem Policy Brief wird der methodische Ansatz von DEval zur Analyse von hochauflösenden RS-Daten unter Anwendung von Bildklassifizierungstechniken und Techniken des maschinellen Lernens (ML) vorgestellt. DEval hat den Ansatz in enger Zusammenarbeit mit RS-Fachleuten der Fakultät für Geoinformationswissenschaften und Erdbeobachtung (ITC) an der Universität Twente in den Niederlanden entwickelt.

In federal states, intergovernmental councils were the main institutions through which the federal government and the constituent units coordinated their responses to COVID-19. To examine whether peak councils assumed a leading role during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure cross-sectoral as well as intergovernmental coordination, this article compares the role of two "peak councils" - the Conference of Premiers (MPK) in Germany and the Conference of Cantonal Governments (KdK) in Switzerland - with sectoral councils in normal times and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis relies on an original database of more than 900 council outputs based on which we compare the level of activity, the publicity, the direction of action, and the bindingness of outputs. The findings show that MPK took a leading role during the pandemic, a role that was indeed unusual when compared to normal times, while KdK, which likewise does not play a leading role in normal times, did not during the pandemic either., Im Umgang föderaler Staaten mit der COVID-19-Pandemie spielten intergouvernementale Regierungskonferenzen eine zentrale Rolle. Anhand des Vergleichs der deutschen Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz (MPK) und der schweizerischen Konferenz der Kantonsregierungen (KdK) mit den politikfeldspezifischen Minister- beziehungsweise Direktorenkonferenzen untersucht dieser Beitrag, inwiefern die MPK und die KdK während der COVID-19-Pandemie eine herausragende Rolle einnahmen, um so sowohl sektorenübergreifende Koordination als auch die Zusammenarbeit der Regierungsebenen sicherzustellen. Anhand eines eigens erhobenen Datensatzes von mehr als 900 Beschlüssen und Pressemitteilungen werden Aktivität, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Ausrichtung und die politische Bindungswirkung der Beschlüsse einer vergleichenden Analyse unterzogen. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass der MPK während der Pandemie in der Tat eine zentrale, vom Normalmodus abweichende Bedeutung zukam. Innerhalb des schweizerischen Konferenzgefüges nahm die KdK hingegen keine herausgehobene Stellung ein - weder im Normalmodus noch zu Krisenzeiten.

Der Sammelband beinhaltet eine interdisziplinäre Analyse von Krisenphänomenen und gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen durch historische Vergleiche und interdisziplinäre Reflexion, um die tieferliegenden Dynamiken von sozialen und politischen Prozessen infolge der Corona-Pandemie ursächlich zu verstehen. Aus wissenschaftlicher Perspektive ergeben sich vielfältige Fragen zu strukturellen Herausforderungen in der Wirtschafts-, Arbeits- und Lebenswelt, die im Rahmen eines inter- und transdisziplinären Dialoges zwischen Historiker:innen, Ökonom:innen, Psycholog:innen und Soziolog:innen erörtert werden., This anthology contains an interdisciplinary analysis of crisis phenomena and social challenges through historical comparisons and interdisciplinary reflection in order to causally understand the deeper dynamics of social and political processes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. From an academic perspective, a variety of questions arise about structural challenges in the economic, working and living worlds, which are discussed here within the framework of an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary dialogue between historians, economists, psychologists and sociologists.

During the so-called refugee crisis of 2015/16 an estimated 25% of the German population was actively engaged as volunteers. Volunteers thus constitute a group of citizens who are high stake actors in crisis management due to their personal experience and direct interaction with the local public administration. This paper scrutinizes how the interaction between volunteers and local administrations in crisis management affects volunteers’ trust in the local public administration. Following the literature on administrative crisis management and cross-sector collaboration, the paper defines relevant features of crisis management performance. Methodologically, the paper relies on regression analysis using online survey data from a snowballing sample comprising 900 volunteers who engaged during Germany's 2015/16 migration crisis. The results show that performance perception of the local administration, and the formalization of the different volunteer organizations explain how volunteers’ trust in the public administration changes over the course of the crisis., Während der sogenannten Flüchtlingskrise 2015/16 engagierten sich schätzungsweise 25% der Bevölkerung in Deutschland ehrenamtlich. Ehrenamtliche stellen somit eine Gruppe von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern dar, die aufgrund ihrer persönlichen Erfahrung und direkter Interaktion mit der lokalen öffentlichen Verwaltung eine wichtige Rolle im Krisenmanagement spielten. In diesem Beitrag wird untersucht, wie sich die Interaktion zwischen Ehrenamtlichen und Kommunalverwaltungen beim Krisenmanagement auf das Vertrauen der Ehrenamtlichen in die Kommunalverwaltung auswirkt. In Anlehnung an die Literatur zum administrativen Krisenmanagement und zu sektorenübergreifender Zusammenarbeit definiert das Papier relevante Leistungsmerkmale des Krisenmanagements. Methodisch stützt sich das Papier auf Regressionsanalysen mit Online-Befragungsdaten einer Schneeballstichprobe von 900 Freiwilligen, die während der Migrationskrise 2015/16 in Deutschland engagiert waren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sowohl die wahrgenommene Leistungsfähigkeit der Kommunalverwaltung als auch der Grad an Formalisierung der verschiedenen Freiwilligenorganisationen erklären, wie sich das Vertrauen der Freiwilligen in die öffentliche Verwaltung im Verlauf der Krise verändert.

In South Africa, Municipal Service Partnerships (MSPs) have been in existence afore the global breakout of COVID-19 Pandemic as an essential mechanism to expand and accelerate municipal service delivery in the local government sphere. However, once the National Lockdown (NL) was put in place by the state president Cyril Ramaphosa on the 26 of March 2020, many South African municipalities were and still are pushed to look for assistance from their partners in the private sector in order to help with addressing the challenges, imposed by the pandemic, especially, service delivery backlogs. Municipalities are entering into service contracts with the private sector for the provision of basic services that are deemed essential in terms of the National Lockdown Regulations (NLRs). In curbing the spread of the virus in the communities, municipalities extended their effort by commonly cooperating with private partners. For instance, most municipalities went to an extend of collaborating with private partners and other government agencies like Rand Water for the provision of water and water tanks at different schools and communities across the provinces and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), namely masks and hand sanitisers. Methodologically, this is a conceptual paper that is embedded from secondary data. The secondary data was analysed through the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach. The article argues that South African municipalities and their MSPs are faced with huge challenges more than ever. It also argues that private partners have been long-standing with a commitment to serve communities on behalf of the government and that now includes partnering with the government in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The call by President Ramaphosa has been noted for increased partnerships, solidarity, collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and experience to fight the pandemic, poverty, service delivery backlogs and social injustice. The paper concludes by off

This paper develops a unified model of policy diffusion to analyze the speed of adoption of statewide lockdown policies within a federal system during the COVID-19 pandemic. The modified unified model was built to improve our understanding of policy diffusion in contexts where existing models fall short. The authors highlight three main policy diffusion channels: regional, vertical, and internal. The paper shows the empirical test of the model across US states and finds that vertical effects, such as higher approval ratings for President Donald Trump, as well as a comparatively high proportion of COVID-19 federal funding support, bear a strong positive association with the speed of statewide lockdown adoption policies. In addition, certain internal effects are also important - higher governor approval ratings are positively associated with the speed of statewide lockdown adoption policies, as are state and local spending, democratic state governments, and population awareness of the virus. However, other internal factors, such as the stringency of statewide lockdown policies and the relative proportion of COVID-19 deaths in a state, were minimally associated with the speed of lockdown policy adoption. Surprisingly, unlike past studies, horizontal regional effects did not play a significant role in the presented analysis - the speed of adoption of lockdown policies by neighboring states bears no association with the speed of policy adoption of statewide lockdowns. Overall, the results suggest a strong influence of political factors on the speed of statewide lockdown adoption policies in the US.

Im Zuge der Flüchtlingskrise sind in Deutschland zahlreiche Vollzugs- und Koordinationsprobleme im Bereich der Migrations- und Integrationspolitik zu Tage getreten und es kam zu einer partiellen Überforderung des politisch-administrativen Systems. Eine wesentliche Ursache für die beobachteten Defizite liegt in Problemen der Verwaltungsverflechtung (Überflechtung, Unterflechtung, Koordinationsmängel). Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird Verwaltungsverflechtung als ein "missing link" der Föderalismusforschung adressiert und als konzeptioneller Rahmen für die Analyse des Verwaltungshandelns in einer Krisensituation zugrunde gelegt. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die gegebenen Kompetenzzuordnungen im Bundesstaat und das Prinzip des Verwaltungsföderalismus zu erheblichen Schnittstellenproblemen geführt haben, die die sektoren- und ebenenübergreifende Koordination erschwerten und Defizite im Verwaltungsvollzug nach sich zogen. Dadurch sind die potenziell mit Verflechtungsstrukturen verbundenen Kooperations- und Koordinationsvorteile bei der Bewältigung der Flüchtlingskrise nur bedingt eingetreten. Stattdessen haben sich in bestimmten Bereichen eher Verflechtungsnachteile ergeben wie Intransparenz, Doppelarbeiten und fehlende Verantwortung für den Gesamtprozess. Auf der Grundlage einer Analyse der Verwaltungsverflechtungen werden mögliche Gegenmaßnahmen wie Entflechtung, Neu-Verflechtung bzw. die Optimierung bestehender Verflechtungsstrukturen diskutiert., In the course of the refugee crisis, numerous implementation and coordination problems in the area of migration and integration policy have come to light in Germany, and the politico-administrative system has been partially overstretched. One of the main reasons for the observed deficits lies in problems of inter-administrative relations. This paper addresses inter-administrative relations (Verwaltungsverflechtung) as a "missing link" in federalism research and uses it as a conceptual framework for analyzing administrative action in a crisis-situation. The empirical results show that the given allocation of competencies in the federal state and the principle of administrative federalism have led to considerable interface problems that have made cross-sectoral and cross-level coordination more difficult and have resulted in deficits in administrative enforcement. As a result, the cooperation and coordination benefits potentially associated with inter-administrative (multilevel and/or multi-sector) structures have materialized only to a limited extent in dealing with the refugee crisis. Instead, disadvantages of (overly or insufficiently) integrated inter-administrative structures have emerged, such as intransparency, duplication of work, and lack of accountability for the overall process. Finally, possible countermeasures and recommendations are discussed, such as institutional unbundling, integration/re-bundling and the modernization of existing inter-administrative settings.

A systematic use of Remote Sensing (RS) data opens a door for evaluators to better address evaluation questions by adding a spatial dimension. This policy brief highlights DEval’s methodological approach to the analysis of high-resolution RS data through the application of image classification and machinelearning (ML) techniques. DEval has been developing this approach in close cooperation with RS experts from the Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

Discourses on multilateralism and liberal internationalism are replete with warnings about crises. However, theories often only address crises in pragmatic terms, as if they were discreet and isolated phenomena that have little to do with globalized structural tendencies and the specific limitations of knowledge production within the field of international relations (IR). This article initiates a process of reflection on the nature of the crisis of liberal internationalism and the multilateral world order with the help of the pedagogy of crises framework. It identifies the biases contained within IR research and knowledge production as integral to the crises themselves because of the limitations of their engagement with crises solely at the crisis management level. Acknowledging and situating these biases allows us to build a perspective around the notion of crisis of crisis management. This perspective entails a combination of the study of liberal internationalism and neoliberalism to better explain the nature and dynamics of the multilateral world order. This endeavour can offer a fresh take on analysing case studies related to developing countries and outlines a critical focus to inform further research. A brief review of the Chilean example is featured to support this argument, as it shows how the processes that unfold within the multilateral world order are articulated within a local context, and also points to the intimate relations between knowledge production and policy implementation. The article demonstrates the impossibility of understanding the multilateral world order without due consideration of the dialectical relationship between neoliberalism and liberal internationalism. Historically, analyses have focused on neoliberalism as something embedded within liberal internationalism while, in fact, processes of neoliberalisation have become a framework of reference in themselves. That is to say, liberal internationalism, and the study of it, are but a few

This article examines Corona crisis policies in Germany between January 2020 and March 2022. During this period, Corona crisis management can be analytically disaggregated into four different time periods. Each stage of policy-making included steadily growing authoritarianism combined with unclear objectives and erratic communication. Throughout the entire period, policy-making was driven by a closed community of advisors linked to government-financed research institutes, while other groups of experts were excluded from deliberation and decision-making. The almost single-minded emphasis on the rapid rollout of mRNA 'vaccines', i.e. efforts to 'solve' the crisis by way of pharmaceutical intervention, results currently in the imposition of a new form of authoritarian statehood, namely a 'biosecurity state'. The three substantial chapters in this paper (II-IV) will discuss, in turn, how actors, ideas, and institutions affected German government policies since the start of the Corona crisis. It is argued that Germany's closed style of policy-making under crisis conditions severely undermines the norms and values of liberal democracy.

The COVID 19 crisis has had a massive impact on the world of work. Based on a standardized survey of 540 company sites and 34 qualitative case studies in six industries (automotive, chemicals, mechanical engineering, logistics, healthcare and financial services), this study examines how companies’ digitalization and automation strategies have changed in the context of the pandemic. The analysis shows that the companies surveyed have by and large coped well with the crisis. However, an increasing polarization is becoming apparent. Digital pioneers intensified digitalization measures to a greater extent than those that were already behind in this respect before the pandemic. The focus of digitalization during the pandemic was particularly on supporting processes in administration, human resources management and sales. Automation also primarily played a role in these fields and only a minority of respondents expected employment losses in the medium term. Another key finding of this study is the correlation between technical and organizational innovation. It can be observed that those companies that invested more heavily in technical digitalization processes were also more inclined to make organizational changes with regard to management styles, working hours and work organization.

Die Verbreitung des Covid-19-Virus birgt sowohl für Gesundheitspolitik und -forschung sowie die Bevölkerung neue Herausforderungen. Als gesundheitspolitische Maßnahmen werden in dieser Zeit u.a. neue Apps beworben, die helfen sollen, die Krise zu bewältigen. Eine dieser Apps ist die durch das Robert-Koch-Institut (RKI) entwickelte Corona-Datenspende-App. Auf freiwilliger Basis können durch diese App Vitaldaten an das RKI transferiert werden, die durch privat eingesetzte Fitness-Tracker generiert wurden. Im Rahmen einer qualitativen Kurzstudie werden die Motive für und die Effekte von Praktiken mit dieser App analysiert. Informiert durch die Science and Technologies Studies und Ansätze des New Materialism rücken die Verschränkungen des Materiellen (u.a. Technologien, Körper) und des Diskursiven (u.a. Seuchendiskurse, Werturteile) in den Fokus., The spread of the Covid-19 virus poses new challenges for health policy and research as well as for the population. During this period, public health interventions introduce new apps to help overcome the crises. One of these apps is the Corona-Data-Donation-App developed by the Robert-Koch-Institute (RKI). Thereby, on a voluntary basis, users can donate body data generated by privately used fitness trackers. A qualitative short study analyses the motives for and effects of the practices with this app. Informed by science and technology studies and concepts of new materialism the focus will be on the entanglements of the material (e.g. technologies, bodies) and discourses (e.g. epidemic discourse, moral judgments).

While accountability has gained significant traction within the contemporary discourse on disaster governance, what it means and takes to be 'doing accountability' in promoting democratic governance of disasters remain scantly understood. Using the concept of social accountability and drawing on an ethnographic case study of a civil society-led accountability campaign in post-earthquake Nepal (the Mobile Citizen Help Desk, or MCHD), this article shows how MCHD sought to amplify local voices regarding failures in aid delivery and expanded opportunities for dialogue between disaster-affected communities and local powerholders. It highlights the potential of such initiative in safeguarding and promoting the rights of disaster-affected communities, while also helping overcome the post-disaster environment of mistrust, unfounded allegations and power inequalities. The article also draws attention to the challenges facing such an initiative. It shows that the effectiveness of such efforts in translating citizens' voices into state response was undermined by: (i) its incorporation into a donor-driven humanitarian accountability initiative, in which generating and reporting feedback to donors proved more pressing than amplifying citizen voice; and (ii) unclear structures of governance at the local level of service delivery, which impeded the civil society actors' aim to engage with 'the right authority'. The article draws attention to the political potential of social accountability in a post-disaster context, while also raising caution that such activism is unlikely to succeed in holding powerholders to account in the absence of supportive national bureaucratic and international aid structures.

The EU-Jordan Compact (hereafter Compact) has been identified as being a groundbreaking, comprehensive approach to global refugee protection. Thus far, research on this underexplored case has mainly focused on the effects of the Compact. The policy process leading to the adoption of the Compact, as well as the motivations of the EU (i.e., the main donor), remain blackboxed. This article explores how the migration crisis affected the EU Commission's ability to create coordinated, strategic action in external policy. It does so by tracing the internal EU negotiations and developing a causal model that explains how the Commission could overcome silos and efficiently draft a policy proposal linking the issues of migration and trade. The analysis is based on 13 original in-depth interviews with EU representatives. The article contributes to crisisification theory by presenting a mechanism that explains how the Commission can make use of crises. The Commission created cohesion by reframing the crisis, identifying the relevant policy tools with which to address it, and by reframing the responsibilities of the relevant directorate-general. Furthermore, by utilizing the urgency of the crisis, the Commission enabled rapid policy drafting and created an explicit linkage between refugee policy and trade policy. This linkage provided the member states with the motivation to adopt the proposal as a solution to the ongoing migration crisis.

The influence of private actors, such as non-profit organizations (NPOs) and firms, has been increasing in disaster governance. Previous literature has interrogated the responsibilities of states towards citizens in disasters, but the roles of private actors have been insufficiently challenged. The article politicizes the entangled relations between NPOs, states, and disaster-affected people. It proposes the Rawlsian division of moral labor as a useful, normative framework for interrogating the justice of disaster governance arrangements in which 'liberal' states are involved. Liberal states have two types of responsibilities in disasters: humanitarian and political. The humanitarian responsibilities imply provision of basic resources needed for the capacity to make autonomous choices (domestically and abroad), while the political responsibilities imply provision of the institutions needed for the liberal democratic citizenship (domestically). Through this analytical lens and building on the wealth of existing scholarship, we illustrate the disaster governance role of the American Red Cross in the United States (a 2005 hurricane) and in Haiti (the 2010 earthquake). Where, in Rawlsian terms, United States is interpreted as a 'liberal' society, Haiti is framed as a ‘burdened’ society. The article proposes five points to consider in analyzing disaster governance arrangements under neoliberal regimes, structured around the division of humanitarian and political responsibilities. The article illustrates how NPOS are instrumental in blurring the boundaries between humanitarian and political responsibilities. This might result ultimately in actual vulnerabilities remaining unaddressed. While the Rawlsian approach challenges the privatization and lack of coordination in disaster governance, it is limited in analyzing the political construction of 'burdened' societies.

Die vorliegende Arbeit will den Fokus auf die angewandte Rhetorik (Aristoteles & Krapinger 2019) in einer Krise lenken, da von ihrer Effektivität die Rettung von Menschenleben abhängig ist (Ernst. 2004. S.247). Der Impuls für diese Arbeit kam deshalb von zwei Richtungen: zum einen ist es die aktuelle, durch die Corona Pandemie und Klimakrise geprägte gesellschaftliche Realität, in der die Autorin sich selbst bewegt und die es besser zu verstehen gilt. Zum anderen bezweifelt die Autorin die von Szymon Wròbel (2015) gemachte Behauptung, dass die heutigen, politischen Reden sich fast ausschließlich des Pathos bedienen und vor allem an die Emotionen der Zuhörer appellieren. Für die rhetorische Analyse wurde deshalb zunächst die sprachwissenschaftliche Theorie der Textpragmatik (Ernst 2004. S. 265) mit den Grundbegriffen von Logos, Ethos und Pathos (Aristoteles 2019. S.78) verknüpft und anschließend auf die drei ausgewählten Reden strukturell angewandt. Es konnte dadurch bewiesen werden, dass sich Ethos und Pathos ausgewogen in den ausgewählten Reden vorfinden lassen. Es bleibt die Frage, ob politische Reden ohne emotionelle Wirkung überhaupt Sinn machen würden. Von dem Ergebnis der Analyse ließen sich ebenfalls Rückschlüsse zu den jeweiligen Vertrauensverhältnissen zwischen Sprecher (Regierung) und Hörer (Bürger) ableiten und eine Verbindung zur sprachlichen Machtausübung herstellen. Demnach schlägt die Autorin am Ende vor, die Reden Merkels und Arderns als Diktaturen der Vernunft zu definieren und die Rede von Löfven als Appell der Vernunft. Es wurde deutlich, welch wichtigen Einfluß Vertrauen und die umfassende Interpretation und Auswahl von wissenschaftlichem Wissen als Vorbereitung auf die Ausarbeitung von politischen Reden haben und das unterschiedliche Kulturen in diesem Sinne ihr Krisenmanagement und sprachlichen Appelle auf unterschiedliche Voraussetzungen, mit unterschiedlichen Wirkungsfunktionen aufbauen. So stimmt die Autorin am Ende Wróbels Interpretatio

Durch das gesteigerte gesellschaftliche Schutzbedürfnis infolge der Corona-Pandemie ist "Resilienz" auch zum wirtschaftspolitisch strategischen Leitgedanken der EU avanciert. Allerdings fehlt eine klare Idee, wie sie sich in der Praxis operationalisieren lässt. Der wissenschaftliche Resilienzbegriff betont die Fähigkeit von Systemen, auf ganz unterschiedliche und vor allem unerwartete Krisen flexibel zu reagieren, sie abzufedern, sich davon zu erholen und daraus zu lernen. Bisherige Krisenmechanismen in wirtschaftlich relevanten Feldern wie der Rohstoff-, Arzneimittel-, Handels- oder Investitionsschutzpolitik zielen hauptsächlich auf die eigene Versorgungssicherheit ab. Ein verengter Fokus auf Versorgungsaspekte im heimischen Markt birgt beträchtliche ökonomische Risiken, wie das Beispiel der EU-Ernäh­rungs­sicherung belegt. Lange genutzte Maßnahmen wie die Reservehaltung, subventionsgesteuerte Produktionsanreize oder eine Marktabschottung durch Zölle vermindern die Flexibilität des Systems. Zudem gehen sie mit Spill-over-Effekten auf andere Länder einher, die kontraproduktiv für die internationale, aber auch die eigene Versorgungssicherung sein können. Wirtschaftspolitische Akteure benötigen ein moderneres Verständnis von Resilienz, das die Interdependenz von Krisen und Märkten mit in den Blick nimmt. Für künftige Resilienzstrategien lässt sich an Ansätze anknüpfen, die im Ernährungssektor gerade angesichts negativer Erfahrungen im Laufe der Zeit entwickelt wurden. Hierzu zählen das internationale Agricultural Market Information System ebenso wie Instrumente der Subventions­evaluierung von OECD und WTO. (Autorenreferat)

Die COVID-19-Krise hat massiven Einfluss auf die Arbeitswelt. Basierend auf einer standardisierten Befragung von 540 Betrieben und 34 qualitativen Fallstudien in sechs Branchen (Automobil, Chemie, Maschinenbau, Logistik, Gesundheit und Finanzdienstleistungen) untersucht die vorliegende Studie, wie sich im Kontext der Pandemie die Digitalisierungs- und Automatisierungsstrategien von Unternehmen verändert haben. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die befragten Betriebe die Krise im Großen und Ganzen gut bewältigt haben. Dabei zeigt sich allerdings eine zunehmende Polarisierung. Digitale Vorreiter haben Digitalisierungsmaßnahmen während der Pandemie in stärkerem Maße intensiviert, als jene, die in dieser Hinsicht bereits vor der Pandemie zurücklagen. Der Fokus der Digitalisierung während der Pandemie lag insbesondere auf der Unterstützung von Prozessen in der Verwaltung, dem Personalmanagement und dem Vertrieb. Automatisierung spielte primär in diesen Feldern eine Rolle und nur eine Minderheit der Befragten erwartete mittelfristig Beschäftigungsverluste. Ein zentraler Befund der vorliegenden Studie ist zudem der Zusammenhang zwischen technischer und organisatorischer Innovation. Es lässt sich beobachten, dass jene Unternehmen, die stärker in technische Digitalisierungsprozesse investiert haben, zugleich auch eher geneigt waren, organisatorische Veränderungen im Hinblick auf Führungsstile, Arbeitszeit und Arbeitsorganisation vorzunehmen.

Krisen und Katastrophen verändern sich stetig - sowohl in der Wahrnehmung als auch in der Bewältigung. Seit mehr als zehn Jahren analysiert das Deutsche Rote Kreuz mit seinem Kompetenzzentrum "Forschung und Innovationstransfer" bestehende Hilfeleistungssysteme. Die Autoren präsentieren die Ergebnisse dieses Prozesses und zeigen, dass das DRK einen wichtigen Beitrag dazu leistet, Hilfeleistungssysteme der Zukunft zu gestalten.

This research examined whether there is an elaborate system of protocols, protection, and prevention in place at the local self-government level in the event of a crisis caused by an epidemic or pandemic. The core idea of this paper was to evaluate the protocol's effectiveness at the local self-government. Analysis was conducted using responses of 16 local self-government authorities. During a crisis caused by an epidemic/a pandemic of infectious illnesses, surveys were done as a cross-section documenting and detecting the current state of local self-government functioning. Methods used in the study are defining the objectives of the research, conceptualization, analysis of legal regulations, economic analysis, and decomposition of the problem. Key results and arguments of this paper expanded existing research thus there are only certain empirical data from areas that have been affected by the infectious disease caused by the epidemic/pandemic. Data was collected, processed, and systematized to serve in model formulation. As a brief conclusion, this study suggested protocol effectiveness at the local self-government level representing the idea that emergency and crisis management should be organized to preserve the health and livelihood of the population in the area affected by the pandemic of infectious diseases and thus enable the functioning of economic activities and society as a whole.

Die COVID-19-Pandemie hat alle europäischen Länder in eine Krise gestürzt, mit der sie unterschiedlich umgegangen sind. Relativ wenig beachtet wurden die Reaktionen und politischen Entwicklungen in Griechenland. Dabei sind sie aus zwei Gründen interessant: Zunächst ist Griechenland von einer über zehn Jahre andauernden Austeritätspolitik schwer gezeichnet, welche die öffentliche Daseinsvorsorge im Namen der wiederherzustellenden Wettbewerbsfähigkeit seiner nationalen Ökonomie dramatisch auszehrte. Deshalb begleitete COVID-19 von Beginn an die Befürchtung, das Virus werde eine in Griechenland bereits existierende Ausnahmesituation drastisch verschärfen. Faktisch verzeichnete das Land jedoch vergleichsweise wenige Virusinfektionen und Todesfälle. Also ließen es sich gewisse Beobachter*innen nicht nehmen, die vormalige Bête noire Europas aufgrund seiner Pandemiestrategien von einem "failed state" zum "Musterschüler" zu promovieren. Immerhin schloss der griechische Premierminister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Mitglied der rechtskonservativen Partei Nea Demokratia, bereits Ende Februar, das heißt zu einem Zeitpunkt, an dem kaum ein anderes europäisches Land Maßnahmen zur Pandemiebekämpfung ergriffen hatte, die Schulen und stimmte die Bevölkerung darauf ein, dass sich Griechenland „im Krieg“ mit dem Virus befinde. Diese frühzeitige Strategie einer Versicherheitlichung der Krise soll im Folgenden näher betrachtet werden: Wie zu zeigen sein wird, operiert sie mit einer Tendenz zur Ökonomisierung der Pandemie, die eine öffentliche Diskussion der Maßnahmen sowohl unter ethischen als auch politischen Hinsichten von vornherein stark eingrenzt.

Stabile Grundhaltung zur EU-Mitgliedschaft, aber viel Kritik am Krisenmanagement und mangelndem Zusammenhalt. Im Zusammenhang mit der Impfstoffbeschaffung ist auch die EU in die Kritik geraten. Die Bürger haben dies aufmerksam registriert und ziehen insgesamt eine überwiegend negative Bilanz des Krisenmanagements auf EU-Ebene. Dies zeigt eine aktuelle Bevölkerungsumfrage. Nur 17 Prozent der Bevölkerung haben den Eindruck, dass sich die EU in der Krise bewährt hat, 51 Prozent werfen ihr Versagen vor. Besonders kritisch bewerten die schwächeren sozialen Schichten das Krisenmanagement; dabei ist zu berücksichtigen, dass diese generell der EU distanzierter gegenüberstehen als die mittleren und höheren Schichten. Auf dem Höhepunkt der Kritik im Frühjahr waren 46 Prozent überzeugt, dass die Mitgliedschaft in der EU während der Pandemie mehr Nachteile als Vorteile hatte; lediglich 8 Prozent sahen zu diesem Zeitpunkt mehr Vorteile. Seither hat sich die Kritik jedoch signifikant zurückgebildet: aktuell ziehen nur noch 29 Prozent die Bilanz, dass die EU-Mitgliedschaft während der Pandemie überwiegend mit Nachteilen verbunden war. Nach wie vor ist die Mehrheit jedoch überzeugt, dass ein nationaler Alleingang bei der Impfstoffbeschaffung erfolgreicher gewesen wäre.

Managerial competencies are vital in solving issues and providing quick solutions in this time of the pandemic. The capacity of top managers to manage the firm plays a critical part in the enterprise's survival. However, competency gaps among managers in this time of pandemics continue to be high. This study determined the management competencies of Managers and their impact on the survival of Small and Medium Enterprises during COVID-19. Business continuity strategies were also determined to prove managers possess the competencies to thrive in this challenging business environment. This study used a quantitative-qualitative research approach to identify the management competencies possessed by twelve SME managers in Santiago City, Philippines, as validated by the responses of five employees who directly work under each SME manager/owner. Data were collected through the drop-and-collect method. SPSS was used to process and analyze data using weighted means and Pearson-r correlation. In addition, financial accounts from SMEs were requested for triangulation to corroborate the findings on survival. Indeed, recovery planning, resilience, innovativeness, creativity, integrated decision-making, problem-solving, and analytical thinking are crucial to managerial success and business survival. Business managers have deliberately designed continuity strategies to continue operating despite limits and profit from their business activities. This study increases transparency and accessibility of comprehensible and understandable information on intensified business management competencies, including its impact on business survival. Thus, SMEs may be able to adopt and implement practical approaches that were revealed. It will also allow business owners to create training, coaching, and mentoring programs that will suit the need of the managers, which may equip them with necessary competencies that can contribute more opportunities for the company's growth in the new century.

Paraphrasing the German poet Bertolt Brecht's 1949 poem "Wahrnehmung", it can be said that for Latin American regionalism, the fatigue of the summits has been left behind; it must now cope with the labors of the plains. The days when Latin American presidents socialized frequently at summit meetings are long gone. In the golden age of summitry, between 2004 and 2012, four Summits of the Americas, six Latin American summits, 29 South American summits (including the Southern Common Market-Mercosur), nine Andean summits, 18 Caribbean summits, 52 Central American summits, 18 Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) summits, and eight Ibero-American Summits were held, for a total of 144 summits in 9 years. It was the time when Chilean President Sebastián Piñera complained ironically that Latin America had so many summits it looked like a mountain range. Christopher Sabatini argued in Foreign Policy that, "the Western Hemisphere has a strong claim to the title of summit capital of the world," adding that, "if the number of summits were a measure of the quality of diplomacy, Latin America would be a utopia of harmony, cooperation, and understanding."

The main aim of the article is to characterise and analyse EU military operations, taking into account their objectives, assumptions, successes as well as their limitations and weaknesses. The author focusses his research on EU activities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The following research questions were posed: what is the specificity and characteristic features of EU military crisis management operations; to what extent and in what direction are military operations launched by the EU evolving; in what way do EU military operations influence the perception of the EU as a civilian and normative power and affect the development of the EU as a security actor; what are the main limitations and weaknesses of EU military operations; what is their future in EU foreign policy? The author applied the following research methods: factorial, comparative, scenario, quantitative, and qualitative analysis. The main conclusion is that the EU's military operations and its military training missions should solely be perceived as one of the elements (measures) in EU foreign policy. As has been indicated in the title of the article, they are "a tool in the EU’s foreign policy toolbox".