Assessing disaster capitalism in post-disaster processes in Chile: neoliberal reforms and the role of the corporate class

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 831-847
Author(s):  
Vicente Sandoval ◽  
Claudia Gonzalez-Muzzio ◽  
Carlos Villalobos ◽  
Juan Pablo Sarmiento ◽  
Gabriela Hoberman

PurposeThis paper examines disaster capitalism in Chile, that is, the relationships between disasters and neoliberalism. It looks at two post-disaster dimensions: disasters as windows of opportunity to introduce political reforms and disasters as occasions for the corporate class to capitalize on such disasters.Design/methodology/approachTwo indices, disaster capitalism (DC) and post-disaster private involvement (PDPI), are proposed for cross-case analysis. They are based on legal records, institutional reports and economic data. The DC assesses the introduction of reforms following disasters, while PDPI evaluates the share of public-private funding used for recovery. Both indices are applied here to two disasters in Chile: the 2010 Maule earthquake, and the 2008 Chaitén volcanic eruption.FindingsResults show that the highly neoliberal Chilean context leaves limited space for new neoliberal reforms. Although recovery is implemented predominantly through the private sector, the state still assumes greater responsibility for recovery costs. Results also detect poor levels of participation from the private sector in accounting their efforts and making them publicly available. Likewise, the research suggests that neoliberal reforms become more likely after disasters. However, the preexisting politico-economic context matters. Finally, there is clearly a need for data systematization in post-disaster recovery.Originality/valueIn the Chilean context, the indices proved beneficial as a strategy for data collection and a method for scrutinizing the implications of neoliberal policy implemented in the wake of disasters, as well as in evaluating the role of the corporate class during recovery.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakshi Naithani ◽  
Ashis Kumar Saha

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the role of livelihood assets, strategies and local social networks in disaster response and recovery in post-disaster setting of 2013 Kedarnath disaster (India).Design/methodology/approachIt identifies post disaster macro-spaces of Mandakini river valley (India) using change detection analysis and secondary data. Within these macro-spaces, the micro spaces of livelihood and social capital were assessed by selecting two villages for case study.FindingsMost important issues faced by communities were loss of lives, livelihoods and access to relief aid. A shift in economic base of families suffering loss of livelihoods was observed as they switched from pilgrimage-based to skill-based opportunities. Geographical location and isolation play a crucial role in recovery trajectory of villages by influencing the social capital.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper being case study based deals two of the worst-affected villages; livelihood strategies adopted and social network may be influenced by the “victim” status of villages and may not be generalized for each disaster-affected area.Social implicationsBridging and bonding networks were significant in geographically isolated places, while “linkages” were beneficial in bringing new livelihood opportunities. Need to enhance the role of social capital by institutional intervention in form of capacity building was required.Originality/valueThe study suggests focus on human capital-based livelihood diversification programs taking geographical location and disaster context into account.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-318
Author(s):  
Ayat Ahmadi ◽  
Leila Doshmangir ◽  
Vladimir Sergeevich Gordeev ◽  
Bahareh Yazdizadeh ◽  
Reza Majdzadeh

PurposeUnderreporting of new tuberculosis (TB) cases is one of the main problems in TB control, particularly in countries with high incidence and dominating role of a private sector in TB cases diagnosing. The purpose of this paper was to explore behavioral determinants of underreporting of new TB cases among private sector physicians in Iran.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a population-based, cross-sectional study of physicians working in private clinics. The data collection tool was designed using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The authors used structural equation models with maximum likelihood estimation to examine attitude toward the notification behavior.FindingsOf 519 physicians, 433 physicians completed the questionnaire. Attitude toward notification had the highest score (mean score = 87.65; sd = 6.79; range: 0–100). The effect of perceived behavioral controls on the notification behavior ((β^) = 0.13; CI: 0.01–0.25) was stronger than the total effect of attitude ((β^) = 0.06; CI: 0.00–0.12) and subjective norms ((β^) = 0.01; CI: −0.00–0.03) on the behavior. However, the attitude was the main predictor of intention and justified 46% of the intention variance. Intention had a significant effect on the behavior ((ß^) = 0.09; CI: 0.1–0.16).Practical implicationsConsidering stronger effect of perceived behavioral control on the behavior, interventions aiming at facilitating notification process would be more effective than those aiming at changing the attitude or enhancing intention among physicians.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, no other study previously explored determinants of underreporting from the behavioral and cognitive perspective. Specifically, the authors explored the role of the TPB constructs in predicting intention to notify new TB cases.


Subject The role of the private sector in strengthening regional ties between African states. Significance Over the past decade, the African continent has experienced greater integration within and across its regions, especially through trade. While still lagging behind many other emerging market regions, this growth has been driven in large part by the private sector. More African companies are now expanding beyond the borders of their home countries. Private equity is playing an important role in funding this expansion, supporting companies with knowledge and experience to access broader markets. Impacts Commercial ties are pushing regulators to harmonise aspects of economic policy across borders, eg on banks and insurance firms. Longer-term integration projects -- eg African Central Bank and African Monetary Fund -- are unlikely to succeed. Firms from regional hegemons (Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa) will tend to have the greatest pan-Africa footprint.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Audra Diers-Lawson ◽  
Lorraine Collins

Purpose The central aim of this research is to deepen the analysis of the influence that crises have on employee relations by using the stakeholder relationship management model (SRM) to analyze organizational employee relationship management (OERM).Design/methodology/approach This study uses a questionnaire distributed in two organizations (UK-based public sector and private sector) that were experiencing a crisis at the time of data collection. Respondents identified whether they believed the organization was in crisis, if they defined it as in crisis classified what type of crisis it was, and then responded to questions about their relationship to the organization, the organization's post crisis stability and their own behavioral intentions.FindingsThe findings verify the applicability of the SRM in employee relations with three critical findings: (1) employees with higher income in the private sector were significantly less likely to believe their organization was in crisis; (2) the more ambiguous the blame for the crisis, the greater the damage on the relationship between organizations and employees; and (3) collective sensemaking in organizations is essential, but less likely when a crisis has damaged the relationship between employees and organizations.Originality/value In the last 40 years of Employee Relations, the role of crisis in influencing OERM has not been meaningfully explored in the journal. Therefore, the piece makes an original contribution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-553
Author(s):  
Krichelle Medel ◽  
Rehana Kousar ◽  
Tariq Masood

PurposeThe increasing risk of natural disasters is challenging humanitarian actors to create resilient disaster management systems. However, the role of the private sector in disaster management operations (DMOs) is not as prominent as the role played by (inter)governmental agencies. This article aims to investigate the relationship of collaboration and resilience in disaster management supply networks (DMSNs).Design/methodology/approachSupply network resilience criteria were defined as robustness, flexibility, velocity and visibility based on the literature review. DMSN capabilities were identified characterising each resilience criterion through the development of the Collaboration–Resilience (COLRES) Analysis Framework for DMSNs. This theoretical model was then applied to an empirical case study in the Philippines using semi-structured interviews for data gathering.FindingsA total of 46 cross-sector collaboration activities were identified across four disaster management phases and linked to the resilience criteria. A causal analysis of each collaboration activity and its outcome was conducted to identify relationships between collaboration types and resilience constructs. Based on these results, patterns were identified, and dependencies between collaboration and resilience were defined. Collective DMSN resilience (DMSNRES) enabled by existing cross-sector collaboration activities was evaluated against a future disaster scenario to identify resilience gaps. These gaps were used to recognise new cross-sector collaboration opportunities, thereby illustrating the continuous process of resilience building.Research limitations/implicationsThis research provides new insights on how private sector is involved within a DMOs through collaboration with the government and other NGOs. It augments existing literature on private sector involvement in DMOs where common perception is that the sector is only involved in short-term response and recovery activities. This study finds that the private sector can be operationally involved not just in post-disaster activities, but also in mitigation and preparation phases as well. This then sets a new baseline for further research on private sector involvement within DMOs. As this study provided a novel framework to analyse collaboration activities and its impact to DMSN resilience, future work could be done by applying the model to further cases such as other countries'. DMSNs, or to more specific contexts such as inter-organisational collaborations rather than big sectors. A more detailed assessment method against a future disaster will prove relevance for the model in providing practical insights on how resilience can be built in DMSNs.Practical implicationsThis research proposed a novel DMSN collaboration-resilience (COLRES) model (Figure 11) to analyse existing processes in preparation for specific disasters. Practitioners may be able to use this model with the goal of identifying resilience gaps to fill and continuously improve their processes. The model also provides practitioners the lens to improve processes with the perspective on collaboration to complement government and NGO efforts and expertise with those of the private sector. For the private sector perspective, this research provides new insights on how they can be more involved with the community to provide more sustainable and long-term contributions to the society.Social implicationsWith disasters becoming more complex and frequent by the day and as humanitarian actors focus on improving their expertise, the need for every piece of the society to contribute to disaster risk reduction is continuously intensified. This research shows that each sector of the society can take part in disaster management operations to reduce unpredictability, lives impacted and increase speed of response and recovery. Each sector of the society can be of great contribution not only during post-disaster response and recovery but also during pre-disaster mitigation and preparedness phase. As such, this research echoes the call for everyone to be involved in disaster risk reduction and mitigation as a way of life.Originality/valueThis research ultimately finds that cross-sector collaboration builds resilience in DMSNs through capacity building, redundancy sourcing, information reliability and logistics responsiveness. This study shows that the private sector is able to go beyond existing short-term partnerships by participating in the 46 collaboration activities identified across four disaster management phases in order to build resilience in DMSNs.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Chen ◽  
Lulu He ◽  
Dan Zhou

PurposePost-disaster population resettlement is a complicated process, during which the restoration of livelihood and lifestyle plays a critical role in achieving a successful resettlement outcome. This paper attempts to examine how recovery policies and relocation approaches influence people's livelihood recovery and perception of wellbeing. It specifically investigates the role of farmland in producing a livelihood and maintaining a rural lifestyle among displaced people.Design/methodology/approachThrough face-to-face questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews with rural residents displaced from their villages after the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, China, this study presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence to investigate how post-disaster policies and particularly the availability of farmland influence people's recovery and their satisfaction with the post-resettlement life.FindingsData suggest that availability of farmland, in spite of the size, makes big differences in post-disaster recovery because farmland provides resettled people with not only a livelihood to secure basic living but also a guarantee to maintain a rural lifestyle.Research limitations/implicationsMore samples are needed for analyzing factors that significantly influence disaster-displaced farmers' recovery and wellbeing post resettlement.Practical implicationsThis study can be used as an important reference for making plans for post-disaster recovery and population resettlement programs in other disaster-prone countries across the world.Originality/valueLand-based relocation is proposed as a desirable approach to addressing challenges of livelihood restoration amongst the resettled population in rural areas of developing countries.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 278-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basak Kus

Purpose – The informal economy has expanded across developing countries during the last decades. Focussing on the Turkish case, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role of neoliberal reforms in this development. The author argues that neoliberal reforms produced a double-edged transformation in the regulatory environment of Turkey. On the one hand, the legal rules that constrain the operation of market forces decreased giving way to more entrepreneurial activity; while on the other hand, the state's effectiveness in “policing” the market declined. As the regulatory barriers to private entrepreneurship decreased, the regulatory barriers to informality also decreased. Private sector growth and informalization emerged as the concomitant outcomes of neoliberal reforms. Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines how the state's changing regulatory relationship to the private sector under neoliberal reforms fostered informal economic activities through a close study of the Turkish case. Findings – At the end of the 1980s, the Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto popularized the view that informalization resulted from government regulations imposing rigid constraints and costs on economic actors, and so would be restrained by decreasing or eliminating them. The economic developments of the past few decades challenge this view, however. The size of the informal economy has expanded in developing nations at a period when government regulations have been declining. How can we explain the increasing volume of informal economic activity in developing nations over the past few decades? And more, how can we explain that this has happened during a period when the private sector has grown, and regulatory rigidities have declined? This paper argues that the state's changing regulatory relationship to the private sector under neoliberal reforms was an important factor in the expansion of informal economic activities. Originality/value – The implications of neoliberal reforms for economic processes have been widely studied in the social scientific literature. Only a handful of studies have explored their implications for the informal economy, however. These studies singled out factors such as the decline in public employment, weakening of labor unions, or capital's enhanced ability to exploit labor in contributing to informalization of developing country economies in the neoliberal era. By discussing how the changing regulatory contours of the state-economy relationship played a role in the growth of informally operating private enterprises, this paper adds to the existing knowledge of this relationship.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-312
Author(s):  
Daniel Mutegi Giti ◽  
Owiti A. K'Akumu ◽  
Edwin Oyaro Ondieki

Purpose Low income urban housing in Kenya is underdeveloped as a result of uninnovative financing, hence the many slums and informal settlements in the country, hence the need for enhanced participation of the private sector through application of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), which has been cited as one of the possible solutions. The purpose of this study was to investigate and make predictions of the need for enhanced role of private sector in developing low income urban housing in Kenya through PPPs. Design/methodology/approach Delphi method of research was used to forecast the enhanced role of private sector through PPPs in the development of low income urban housing in Kenya. Three rounds Delphi iterations using three panels of housing financiers (30 in number), housing developers (28 in number) and housing practitioners (30 in number) were used. Data was collected through questionnaires throughout the three rounds, where the first round was exploratory in nature, the second round built on answers from round one, while round three was based on answers from round two, after which the mean and standard deviation values were calculated to show the level of consensus. Findings Results showed that PPPs is one of the plausible ways through which low income urban housing in Kenya can be developed to address its shortage. Private sector in PPP transaction brings innovative technology, finance and efficiency, while government brings its assets such as land and other regulations long term contracts. Research limitations/implications The research was focussed on the Nairobi city county area in analysing the need for enhanced role of the private parties. It focussed on a panel of Housing practitioners-officers in the State Department for housing and Nairobi city county; housing financiers and housing developers, without interviewing the beneficiaries of the method. Practical implications It was, therefore, found out that PPPs models are applicable in developing low income urban housing because the country has the enabling environment for its effective application going forward. The implication of this study is that low income urban housing can be developed through the model. Social implications The slums and informal settlements will have adequate, affordable and quality housing being introduced within their neighbourhoods, which reduces political and societal animosities. Originality/value This research has benefited from published literature on PPPs and original research on PPPs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 176 (9) ◽  
pp. 3913-3928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Peña ◽  
Oliver Heidbach ◽  
Marcos Moreno ◽  
Jonathan Bedford ◽  
Moritz Ziegler ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-180
Author(s):  
Ahmed Naser Alrajhi ◽  
Necati Aydin

Purpose The attention to the university–business collaboration (UBC) for its role in the knowledge-based economy is growing in many countries. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to conduct two surveys to explore the causes of low collaboration between the private sector and academia in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach The first survey covers nearly 50 companies to learn their perspectives. Using the findings of the first survey, a second survey was conducted of university researchers to understand the determinants of private and public funding of research and development projects. The survey provided two types of data, namely, categorical and continuous, which were subjected to reliability and normality tests. A linear regression analysis also was utilized to explore the role of different factors on the funded projects by the two sectors. Findings There is a perception among researchers that the private sector is woefully underestimating research capacity of Saudi universities. One interesting finding is that publishing in journals from the International Scientific Indexing (ISI) is a strong predictor for government funding, but not for private funding. From the private sector perspective, publishing in ISI-indexed journals is not sufficient evidence of research capability. Moreover, high teaching load is a major obstacle in acquiring private funding, but not so for public funding. Practical implications The paper provides two main recommendations to improve collaboration. First, universities should incentivize publishing in high-impact journals more than in ISI-indexed journals to increase the faculty’s research capabilities. Second, universities should reduce the teaching load of faculty involved in research projects, particularly those funded by the private sector. Originality/value The outcomes of this survey-based study are very valuable to the ecosystem of academia, business and government in general and for Saudi Arabia in particular, where there is a vital need to implement the right policies regarding UBC in the country.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document