scholarly journals Resiliency: It Goes Beyond the Hair

Author(s):  
Maria Isabel Oliver ◽  

In the January article of The Guardian News ‘How Hurricane Maria forced Puerto Ricans to change their hair’, author Norbert Figueroa reflects on the devastating effects of the category four storm in the US territory. Besides the aftermath caused by floodwaters, massive electric shortage, and structural damages, Figueroa revealed how Hurricane Maria forced adaptations to everyday life, including the way Puerto Ricans styled their hair. Extreme conditions of heat and humidity, exacerbated by the lack of electric power, lead to the acceptance of natural hairdos, to the creation of sidewalk barber shops, and to the formalization of an underground economy where haircuts in the form of currency, were exchanged for power generators. Figueroa’s simple but complex observation is critical in the revelation of creative self-organizing assemblages at the face of concealed realities. If the simple act of hair restructuring convokes taxonomical categorizations, ingenious adaptabilities, spatial re-conceptualizations, and the creation of new underground economies, why isn’t architecture transcending its heteronomous condition to achieve ‘resilient’ solutions? If resilience is defined as ‘the ability of objects to spring back into shape’ after being deformed,’ does it exclude the notion of ‘predictability’? This paper does not bring to the fore the discursivity that the resilient discourse entails, but it is an attempt to question its interpretations and trivial meanings within a ‘utopian’ model that fails to come to terms with the constitution of the physical realm.

1987 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
I. Story

Australia's oil industry has just emerged from the most difficult period in its short history, following the unprecedented collapse in world oil prices during the first half of 1986, and the continuing weakness during the rest of the year. As a result, the oil industry has undergone painful cost-cutting measures to survive the new environment. Thousands of jobs have been lost for good, exploration activity has been dramatically cut back to the levels of the late 1970s, and the industry now faces the bleak prospect that oil prices may not return to previous high levels until sometime in the 1990s, ironically at a time when Australian oil production is expected to begin a major decline.The Australian federal government has also felt the pain, through significantly reduced revenues from oil production and exports, although this has been anaesthetised to a large degree by a hike in petrol pump excise rates.Oil and petroleum product exports, which rose during the second half of 1985 to become Australia's number two export earner (behind coal) with sales valued at over $150 million a month, came to a dramatic halt during the first half of 1986 before resuming again at considerably lower levels during the second half, only after the government had lowered the top Bass Strait excise rate from 87 per cent to 80 per cent.Government revenue from Bass Strait excises, which reached a record $4.2 billion in 1984-85, fell slightly to $4 billion in fiscal 1985-86 and is forecast to tumble to $1.7 billion during 1986-87.The industry was granted a slight relief from the pressures of low oil prices during the second half of 1986 by the temporary scrapping of onshore levies and a reduction in the top Bass Strait levies. It was unclear, however, at the time of going to press just how long the government was prepared to continue with the tax holiday.The short to medium term outlook is far from healthy. The continuing world over-supply of oil is expected to last until at least the end of the decade, and perhaps into the 1990s. The OPEC nations continue to struggle with meeting the level of production ceilings which will ensure long term oil price stability. While signs are hopeful that OPEC may succeed in holding production at around 16-17 million barrels a day (mmbpd), continuing high output from the non-OPEC countries ensures the prospects for prices firming much above the US$15-18/barrel range for any length of time are not bright. The market supply/demand equation will ensure world prices remain precariously balanced for some time to come.


2009 ◽  
pp. 4-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Gref ◽  
K. Yudaeva

Problems in the financial sector were at the core of the current economic crisis. Therefore, economic recovery will only become sustainable after taking care of the major weaknesses in the financial sector. This conclusion is relevant both for the US and UK - the two countries where crisis has started, and for other economies which financial institutions turned out to be fragile in the face of the swings in the risk appetite. Russia is one of the countries where the crisis has revealed serious deficiency in the financial sector. Our study of 11 banking crises during the last 25-30 years shows that sustainable economic recovery and decrease in the dependence on commodity prices will be virtually impossible without cleaning of balance sheets and capitalization of the financial sector.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arathy Puthillam

That American and European participants are overrepresented in psychological studies has been previously established. In addition, researchers also often tend to be similarly homogenous. This continues to be alarming, especially given that this research is being used to inform policies across the world. In the face of a global pandemic where behavioral scientists propose solutions, we ask who is conducting research and on what samples. Forty papers on COVID-19 published in PsyArxiV were analyzed; the nationalities of the authors and the samples they recruited were assessed. Findings suggest that an overwhelming majority of the samples recruited were from the US and the authors were based in US and German institutions. Next, men constituted a large proportion of primary and sole authors. The implications of these findings are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-347
Author(s):  
Hugo Agra

O artigo analisa um tema pouco abordado na literatura brasileira de relações internacionais: a atuação das políticas externas do Brasil e do México para a criação do Grupo de Contadora (1983), Grupo de Apoio à Contadora (1985) e do Grupo do Rio (1987). Esses grupos tiveram papéis importantes nas tentativas de estabilização dos problemas políticos, econômicos e sociais da América Central a partir dos anos 1980. O artigo está dividido em quatro partes: i) compreensão da criação do Grupo de Contadora, do Grupo de Apoio à Contadora e a atuação do Brasil e do México, ii) destaque aos principais objetivos desses dois grupos, iii) explica o “dilema” das políticas externas do Brasil e do México diante das ações estadunidenses para a América Central e iv) e descreve a criação e os objetivos do Grupo do Rio. Por meio de uma pesquisa explicativa, onde é fundamental reunir informações sobre vários assuntos para entender de forma mais abrangente um tema específico, o artigo faz uso de fontes secundárias que analisam as relações internacionais da América Latina e os processos decisórios das políticas externas do Brasil e do México na década de 1980, além de algumas fontes primárias, como documentos oficiais dos acordos celebrados e declarações presidenciais disponíveis em arquivos dos sites eletrônicos da presidência ou chancelaria dos países. Conclui-se mostrando que os dois países foram fundamentais para o processo de estabilização política, principalmente na região centro-americana, não só pela importância histórica, política e econômica de cada um, mas também pelo fato de que a formação desses grupos foram importantes para dirimir litígios, acelerar a resolução de conflitos entre os países do continente, além de ter sido um período de aproximação e fortalecimento da relação bilateral Brasil-México.         ABSTRACT: The article analyzes a theme little addressed in the Brazilian literature of international relations: the performance of the foreign policies of Brazil and Mexico for the creation of the Contadora Group (1983), the Contadora Support Group (1985) and the Rio Group (1987). These groups played important roles in attempts to stabilize the political, economic and social problems of Central America from the 1980s onwards. The article is divided into four parts: i) an understanding of the creation of the Contadora Group, the Contadora Support Group and the actions of Brazil and Mexico, ii) highlighting the main objectives of these two groups, iii) explaining the "dilemma" of the foreign policies of Brazil and Mexico in the face of US actions for Central America, and iv) describing the creation and objectives of the Rio Group. By means of an explanatory survey, where it is essential to gather information on various subjects in order to understand more comprehensively a specific theme, the article makes use of secondary sources that analyze the international relations of Latin America and the decision-making processes of the foreign policies of Brazil and Mexico in the 1980s, in addition to some primary sources, such as official documents of the agreements signed and presidential declarations available on the archives of the electronic sites of the presidency or chancellery of the countries. It concludes by showing that both countries were fundamental to the process of political stabilization, especially in the Central American region, not only because of their historical, political and economic importance, but also because the formation of these groups was important to settle disputes, accelerate the resolution of conflicts between the countries of the continent, and was a period of rapprochement and strengthening of the bilateral relationship between Brazil and Mexico. Keywords: International Relations; Latin America; Contadora Group; Rio Group.       Aprovado em: setembro/2019. Recebido em: agosto/2020.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Hopkin

Recent elections in the advanced Western democracies have undermined the basic foundations of political systems that had previously beaten back all challenges—from both the Left and the Right. The election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, only months after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, signaled a dramatic shift in the politics of the rich democracies. This book traces the evolution of this shift and argues that it is a long-term result of abandoning the postwar model of egalitarian capitalism in the 1970s. That shift entailed weakening the democratic process in favor of an opaque, technocratic form of governance that allows voters little opportunity to influence policy. With the financial crisis of the late 2000s, these arrangements became unsustainable, as incumbent politicians were unable to provide solutions to economic hardship. Electorates demanded change, and it had to come from outside the system. Using a comparative approach, the text explains why different kinds of anti-system politics emerge in different countries and how political and economic factors impact the degree of electoral instability that emerges. Finally, it discusses the implications of these changes, arguing that the only way for mainstream political forces to survive is for them to embrace a more activist role for government in protecting societies from economic turbulence.


Author(s):  
Gilles Duruflé ◽  
Thomas Hellmann ◽  
Karen Wilson

This chapter examines the challenge for entrepreneurial companies of going beyond the start-up phase and growing into large successful companies. We examine the long-term financing of these so-called scale-up companies, focusing on the United States, Europe, and Canada. The chapter first provides a conceptual framework for understanding the challenges of financing scale-ups. It emphasizes the need for investors with deep pockets, for smart money, for investor networks, and for patient money. It then shows some data about the various aspects of financing scale-ups in the United States, Europe, and Canada, showing how Europe and Canada are lagging behind the US relatively more at the scale-up than the start-up stage. Finally, the chapter raises the question of long-term public policies for supporting the creation of a better scale-up environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-117
Author(s):  
Christian Henrich-Franke

Abstract The second half of the 20th century is commonly considered to be a time in which German companies lost their innovative strength, while promising new technologies presented an enormous potential for innovation in the US. The fact that German companies were quite successful in the production of medium data technology and had considerable influence on the development of electronic data processing was neglected by business and media historians alike until now. The article analyses the Siemag Feinmechanische Werke (Eiserfeld) as one of the most important producers of the predecessors to said medium data technologies in the 1950s and 1960s. Two transformation processes regarding the media – from mechanic to semiconductor and from semiconductor to all-electronic technology – are highlighted in particular. It poses the question of how and why a middling family enterprise such as Siemag was able to rise to being the leading provider for medium data processing office computers despite lacking expertise in the field of electrical engineering while also facing difficult location conditions. The article shows that Siemag successfully turned from its roots in heavy industry towards the production of innovative high technology devices. This development stems from the company’s strategic decisions. As long as their products were not mass-produced, a medium-sized family business like Siemag could hold its own on the market through clever decision-making which relied on flexible specialization, targeted license and patent cooperation as well as innovative products, even in the face of adverse conditions. Only in the second half of the 1960s, as profit margins dropped due to increasing sales figures and office machines had finally transformed into office computers, Siemag was forced to enter cooperation with Philips in order to broaden its spectrum and merge the production site in Eiserfeld into a larger business complex.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Ruth Schmidt ◽  
Katelyn Stenger

Abstract Despite widespread recognition that behavioral public policy (BPP) needs to move beyond nudging if the field is to achieve more significant impact, problem-solving approaches remain optimized to achieve tactical success and are evaluated by short-term metrics with the assumption of stable systems. As a result, current methodologies may contribute to the development of solutions that appear well formed but become ‘brittle’ in the face of more complex contexts if they fail to consider important contextual cues, broader system forces, and emergent conditions, which can take three distinct forms: contextual, systemic, and anticipatory brittleness. The Covid-19 pandemic and vaccination rollout present an opportunity to identify and correct interventional brittleness with a new methodological approach – strategic BPP (SBPP) – that can inform the creation of more resilient solutions by embracing more diverse forms of evidence and applied foresight, designing interventions within ecosystems, and iteratively developing solutions. To advance the case for adopting a SBPP and ‘roughly right’ modes of inquiry, we use the Covid-19 vaccination rollout to define a new methodological roadmap, while also acknowledging that taking a more strategic approach may challenge current BPP norms.


Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (24) ◽  
pp. 1422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamza El Guili ◽  
Driss Ferhane

Business growth is considered as one of the main topics of entrepreneurship research. Due to the increased interest on entrepreneurship, new theoretical perspectives have emerged to explain entrepreneurial behavior. One of these emergent theories is effectuation. It is widely known that entrepreneurs and owner-managers count on different decision-making logics during the internationalization of their ventures, including causal and effectual reasoning. Despite that the use of effectual reasoning has been generally linked to the early stages of the creation of a venture; it has recently been introduced to on the internationalization of SMEs research. Introduced by Sarasvathy (2001), effectuation logic is stated to grow in an unstable operating context where it is complicated to predict and in contrast, it is likely to unexpectedly respond to changes in the environment. Furthermore, it represents a typical shift in approaching entrepreneurship. In this theoretical paper, we first aim to highlight the evolution of the concept and the development of the effectuation theory within the literature. Furthermore, we explain the similarities and differences existing between causation and effectuation reasoning. Finally, we use the lens of effectuation to come up with an understanding of the internationalization of SMEs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document