Water crisis through the analytic of urban transformation: an analysis of Bangalore’s hydrosocial regimes

ABSTRACT

This paper explores intensified water crisis in Bangalore (or Bengaluru) in India by using the analytic of three hydrosocial regimes: the catchment-based regime, the hydraulic regime and the speculative urban regime. It uses a wide range of qualitative interviews, scientific reports and secondary sources to analyze shifting urban trajectories, agrarian relations and their interlinkages with water. Historical ruptures (in the realm of governance, urban growth and changing urban–rural dynamics) allow one to highlight the complex role of speculative logics that shape urban expansion and water scarcity.     

Development and validation of a crisis self‐efficacy index

This study develops a crisis self‐efficacy index to provide a tool for crisis communication researchers and practitioners to understand behavioural aspects of crisis response better. Evaluations of public's crisis self‐efficacy using this index inform strategic message development to protect the public and minimize crisis damages by identifying the public/s most in need of self‐efficacy enhancing interventions. The index also provides practitioners a useful longitudinal index to evaluate progress in crisis preparedness programs and track changes in efficacy. A four‐stage survey index development process using structural equation modelling identifies four underlying constructs of crisis self‐efficacy: action, preventive, achievement and uncertainty management.     

仿生雾水收集材料：从基础研究到性能提升策略

由于水资源污染、淡水资源日益匮乏，水危机已经严重影响到人们的日常生活。从晨雾中捕获水气则可以缓解干旱地区的缺水问题。受纳米布沙漠甲虫、仙人掌、蜘蛛丝等动植物自发捕集雾水的启发，构建特殊润湿性的仿生雾水收集材料备受关注。详细总结了仿生雾水收集材料的最新研究进展，讨论了仿生集水材料的设计和制备方法，并从雾水收集的四大仿生策略出发，介绍了提升雾水收集效率的设计方案。在此基础上，分析了当前仿生雾水收集过程存在的问题，展望了此类材料未来的发展趋势和方向。     

Innovations and productivity: the shift during the 2008 crisis

This paper investigates how the recent crisis of 2008 changed relations between innovation and firm performance in Western Europe. We apply a structural framework of CDM modelling, which incorporates different stages of the knowledge creation process and takes into account the complex nature of innovations. The study is based on a balanced panel data of 420 listed manufacturing firms from the U.K., Germany and France. All the information is gathered from common sources, thereby reducing subjectivity, a typical problem in the field. We found, the crisis resulted in appreciable changes in the model. The most important evidence is enhancement of the role of firm resources in the post-recession period. We also reveal larger barriers for innovations, increased uncertainty and lower state dependence in R&D engagement, product creation and economic performance. These results could indicate the ‘cleaning effect’ of the crisis, which has worsened the business environment and enhanced competition.     

Military crisis responses to COVID‐19

Countries across the globe have mobilized their armed forces in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Current contributions of armed forces have resulted from an urgent need for additional personnel and resources, and were facilitated by a framing of the crisis in terms of war. These deployments were in the interest of armed forces and enabled them to improve their operational readiness, boost their societal standing and support societies with their expertise. Even though armed forces may provide crucial aid in times of need, it is important that civilian crisis organizations are not undermined, civilian control and civil rights are guaranteed, and the effects on other military operations are considered and discussed. This Forum contribution offers some reflections and recommendations.     

‘Breaking’ news: uncovering sense-breaking patterns in social media crisis communication during the 2017 Manchester bombing

ABSTRACT

Individuals, (media-) organisations, and crisis responders who are involved in ad hoc crisis communication steadily deploy social media to contribute to collective sense-making as an endeavour to create meaning in highly uncertain situations. Exerting sense-giving in order to shape others’ conceptions is causally preceded by an initial breakup of existing understanding. This study aims to explore patterns of sense-breaking in social media crisis communication and its impact on collective sense-making and sense-giving. To this end, we conducted a case study of the Manchester bombing in 2017, including a social network analysis of 708,147 Twitter postings and a content analysis of 2006 original tweets. We found individual role types to be initiators of sense-breaking in early crisis stages when uncertainty is at its height. Exerting successive sense-giving becomes more challenging if the collective sense-making has progressed along with the sequence of events. This understanding aims to encourage emergency management organisations to move their sense-giving actions closer to the point in time when sense-breaking occurs.     

Social media in conflicts and crises

ABSTRACT

The growing importance of social media in conflicts and crises is accompanied by an ever-increasing research interest in the crisis informatics field in order to identify potential benefits and develop measures against the technology’s abuse. This special issue sets out to give an overview of current research on the use of social media in conflicts and crises. In doing so, it focuses on both good and malicious aspects of social media and includes a variety of papers of conceptual, theoretical and empirical nature. In six sections, the special issue presents an overview of the field, analytical methods, technical challenges, current advancements and the accepted papers before concluding. Specific topics range from cyber deception over information trustworthiness to mining and near-real-time processing of social media data.     

Salience of public leaders’ “meaning making” in news coverage of a health crisis

Meaning making by leadership in a crisis is required to reduce uncertainty. We used analytic criteria for meaning making suggested by crisis management literature to investigate public leaders’ quotations in news coverage of a health crisis. The quotations were examined in terms of the five frame functions, which include offering a credible explanation of what happened, offering guidance, instilling hope, showing empathy, and suggesting that leaders are in control. The Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea was examined. As a result, the most salient frame function identified was displaying they are in control of the emergency, followed by offering guidance and explaining what happened. The salience of leaders’ meaning making disappeared in coverage by a liberal newspaper.     

The interplay between governmental communications and fellow citizens’ reactions via twitter: Experimental results of a theoretical crisis in the Netherlands

This study aimed to gain insight into the interplay between citizens’ reactions on Twitter and governmental communications as well as their effects on self‐reliant behaviour and trust. Two experimental studies were conducted. In Study 1, participants first received other citizens’ reactions followed by the government's communications about how to act. Participants received supporting, opposing, mixed, or no reactions from other citizens. In Study 2, participants first received the government's communications with either certain or uncertain crisis information, followed by the different citizens’ reactions. The results showed that citizens’ reactions via Twitter are not necessarily detrimental to the effectiveness of governmental communications regarding self‐reliant behaviour. In addition, our findings suggest being careful with providing uncertain governmental communications during a crisis.