Resilient Leadership. Qualitative Study on Factors Influencing Organizational Resilience and Adaptive Response to Adversity

Given the turbulent environment that govern­ments and citizens across the globe faced in the last two years (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), one concept seems to stand out as extremely valuable in this context: resilience. Resilience, understood as the capacity of a sys­tem to bounce back from adversity, becomes a key component in the equation of post-pandemic evo­lution and recovery. Resilient leadership is just one of the multiple derived applications of the general resilience concept, referring (in an institutional set­ting) to the capacity of leaders to turn out positive results despite adverse conditions. Based on quali­tative research consisting of 10 interviews conduct­ed with women leaders (from the private and non­profit sectors) during the last 18 months, our results show that governmental response (regulation and support) and financial pressures have been the ma­jor organizational challenges no matter the sector, while organizational dimension seems to have an influence on the capacity to adapt and respond to adversity. Gender does not seem to play a role in the response provided to the crisis.

Blurred Lines or Stark Contrasts: Are By-laws to Restrict Short-Term Holiday Letting Permissible in Queensland Community Titles Schemes?

Complex laws regulate the development and management of Queensland community titles schemes. Different legislative regimes co-exist, including the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld) (‘BCCM Act’) and its predecessor, the Building Units and Group Titles Act 1980 (Qld) (‘BUGT Act’). This article considers by-laws under the BUGT Act regulating short-term holiday letting post the decisions in Fairway Island GTP v Redman [2019] QMC 13 and Redman v The Proprietors – Fairway Island GTP 107328 [2020] QDC 68. It compares the BCCM Act and BUGT Act requirements and argues that similarities in by-law making powers under the two may appear to blur the divisions between them. However, the positions under each Act are in stark contrast, rendering the cases distinguishable for BCCM Act schemes, a desirable outcome. The article also explores arguments in favour of self-regulation, and the governmental response in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

Crisis Management, Policy Reform, and Institutions: The Social Policy Response to COVID-19 in Australia

Social policy represents a critical dimension of the governmental response to COVID-19. This article analyses the Australian response, which was radical in that it signalled an unprecedented policy turnaround towards welfare generosity and the almost total relaxation of conditionality. It was also surprising because it was introduced by a conservative, anti-welfarist government. The principal argument is that, though the generosity was temporary, it should be understood simultaneously by reference to institutional change and institutional tradition. The ‘change’ element was shaped by the urgency and scale of the crisis, which indicated an institutional ‘critical juncture’. This provided a ‘window of opportunity’ for reform, which would otherwise be closed. ‘Tradition’ was reflected in the nation’s federalist conventions, which partially steered the response. The central implication for other countries is that, amid the uncertainty of a crisis, governments need to consider change within the bounds of their traditional institutions when introducing welfare reform.

The Kremlin Learns to Strike Back: Assessing Reactions to Protests in Russia

In the light of the turbulence in the post-Soviet space, consolidation of the regime, and prevention of possible dangers to it have always been among the main goals of domestic politics for Moscow. While lessons can be drawn from external revolutions, the regional context is as important because it allows testing what works in the Russian context. What may work in Cairo may not be effective in Kazan. Existing analyses focused on Russia primarily look at a general picture, or occasionally Moscow and/or St. Petersburg. Therefore, this paper tests the hypothesis that during the third Putin presidency, the Kremlin developed practices at both regional and federal levels to ensure regime survival when faced with protests. I believe that the nature of a protest influences governmental response. I divide the protests by the type of demonstration, their length, and demands. I find that regardless of the type of protest, regional governments are more concerned with cracking down, whereas, at the federal level, crackdowns are primarily on political protests.

Vernacular Border Security

Since the peak of Europe’s so-called 2015 ‘migration crisis’, the dominant governmental response has been to turn to deterrent border security across the Mediterranean and construct border walls throughout the EU. During the same timeframe, EU citizens are widely represented—by politicians, by media sources, and by opinion polls—as fearing a loss of control over national and EU borders. Despite the intensification of EU border security with visibly violent effects, EU citizens are nevertheless said to be ‘threatened majorities’. These dynamics beg the question: Why is it that tougher deterrent border security and walling appear to have heightened rather than diminished border anxieties among EU citizens? While the populist mantra of ‘taking back control’ purports to speak on behalf of EU citizens, little is known about how diverse EU citizens conceptualize, understand, and talk about the so-called ‘crisis’. Yet, if social and cultural meanings of ‘migration’ and ‘border security’ are constructed intersubjectively and contested politically, then EU citizens—as well as governmental elites and people on the move—are significant in shaping dominant framings of and responses to the ‘crisis’. This book argues that, in order to address the overarching puzzle, a conceptual and methodological shift is required in the way that border security is understood: a new approach is urgently required that complements ‘top-down’ analyses of elite governmental practices with ‘bottom-up’ vernacular studies of how those practices are both reproduced and contested in everyday life.

“Orgulhosamente Sós:” Recent Immigration to the Portuguese Republic

Immigration to the Portuguese Republic is a rather new phenomenon in a world where migratory patterns have become rather pedestrian. This paper analyzes the history of both Portuguese emigration and immigration to Portugal, and the role that international relations have played in both. It also demonstrates the social and governmental response to an increasing alien presence amongst the host society. It argues that racism is not an endemic issue in Portugal and that the host society, both its people and the government, have laboured to integrate newcomers into Portuguese society within a framework of Portugal's domestic needs, on the one hand, and her international commitments on the other.

“Orgulhosamente Sós:” Recent Immigration to the Portuguese Republic

Immigration to the Portuguese Republic is a rather new phenomenon in a world where migratory patterns have become rather pedestrian. This paper analyzes the history of both Portuguese emigration and immigration to Portugal, and the role that international relations have played in both. It also demonstrates the social and governmental response to an increasing alien presence amongst the host society. It argues that racism is not an endemic issue in Portugal and that the host society, both its people and the government, have laboured to integrate newcomers into Portuguese society within a framework of Portugal's domestic needs, on the one hand, and her international commitments on the other.

Estimating the effect of social inequalities on the mitigation of COVID-19 across communities in Santiago de Chile

We study the spatio-temporal spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Santiago de Chile using anonymized mobile phone data from 1.4 million users, 22% of the whole population in the area, characterizing the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on the epidemic dynamics. We integrate these data into a mechanistic epidemic model calibrated on surveillance data. As of August 1, 2020, we estimate a detection rate of 102 cases per 1000 infections (90% CI: [95–112 per 1000]). We show that the introduction of a full lockdown on May 15, 2020, while causing a modest additional decrease in mobility and contacts with respect to previous NPIs, was decisive in bringing the epidemic under control, highlighting the importance of a timely governmental response to COVID-19 outbreaks. We find that the impact of NPIs on individuals’ mobility correlates with the Human Development Index of comunas in the city. Indeed, more developed and wealthier areas became more isolated after government interventions and experienced a significantly lower burden of the pandemic. The heterogeneity of COVID-19 impact raises important issues in the implementation of NPIs and highlights the challenges that communities affected by systemic health and social inequalities face adapting their behaviors during an epidemic.