The Role of For-Profit Firms in Disaster Management: A Typology

Contemporary existence presents a duality of sustained development and recurrent disasters. Whereas disaster studies have closely examined public policy and state initiative, the role of for-profits is under-explored. Stakeholder theory and its integration with marketing orientation provide a theoretical underpinning for understanding the behavior of firms across contingencies, including disasters. Accordingly, we traverse the range of actions that these market entities exhibit in aiding disaster management and develop a comprehensive typology. The current COVID-19 pandemic provides a context for illustrating the practical exemplar actions as mapped to the proposed typology. We add to theory by examining the role of marketing philosophy and for-profits in tackling disasters at multiple levels: from micro-aspects of maintaining relations with specific stakeholders to the macro-objective of building community resilience. Further, the proposed typology helps practice and research by highlighting the range of firms' responses contributing to disaster management and building community resilience.

Climate Change, Public Insecurity and Law: Conflicts Over Water Resources in the Brazilian Context

The article examines to what extent the adverse effects of climate change can be considered triggering factors of public insecurity. Against this background, it explores the growing environmental conflicts involving water resources in Brazil, including the Amazon region. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the paper is structured around three topics. The first one outlines how the concept of public security has evolved to the present state, in which climate change is taken into account. Next, climate change is discussed as a factor that magnifies vulnerabilities, an argument supported by a discussion of historical events. The third topic highlights the main threats, vulnerabilities and conflicts involving water resources in Brazil, taking a scientific view of systemic risks and precaution. Finally, we propose rethinking the concept of public security in Brazil from a perspective of parameters involving regulations, principles and state initiative. The article suggests that the immediate and future effects of climate change do have a profound impact on social systems and on the environment, and may be a triggering factor of public insecurity. If institutions and governments do not address existing effects, and invest in adaptations to meet future scientific forecasts on climate change, social stability and the development of a culture of peace will be less likely in Brazil. A fundamental step in this process is the reformulation of the conventional concept of public security in the Brazilian legislation, in order to expressly incorporate the variable of climate security among its stated objectives. In addition, we point out a set of actions and principles with the potentital to promote not only adaptation and resilience, but also contribute to building peace. In terms of methodology, the study is descriptive, exploratory, legislative, bibliographical and documentary.

Membership Fees in the History of the All-Union Society of Book Lovers: The Economy and Ideology of a Late Soviet Mass Organisation

This article considers the financial side and specifically the phenomenon of membership fees in the history of a mass voluntary organisation of the late Soviet period, i.e. the All-Union Society of Book Lovers. The purpose of the article is to examine the role of fees in the structure of the organisation’s income and identify contradictions that arose within the Society in their relation. The article refers to the company’s accounting documents, materials of congresses, the corporate newspaper Knizhnoe Obozrenie, and letters of book lovers to the leadership of the society. Based on the results of the study, it is concluded that the management of the organisation and ordinary participants treated the annual fee with different pragmatics. Officials needed money for the structure, so they sought to increase the number of collective and individual members of the Society and fees from them. Initially, collective participants provided the flow of money to the organisation. Later, their share in the total budget decreased with the growth of contributions from ordinary book lovers. The popularity of reading and book hunger caused the new organisation to be seen by its members as a means to get books: they directly connected membership fees with the opportunity to get books that were in deficit. The lack of official guarantees for books and subscriptions caused outrage among book lovers who meticulously paid their fees and could lead to their refusal to pay to the Society. In a situation like this, the existence of the organisation and the format of the mass organisation were doubted. The ambiguous perception of the state initiative in the field of reading on the part of citizens helps examine the relations of society and government in the late Soviet period in a more detailed way.

Pilot Study to Implement a Resident and Family Decision Guide

In this first stage of an 8 state initiative designed to assist nursing homes in reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions, 16 nursing homes were identified and invited by CMS and state agency advisors to participate in the pilot study of the effects of intervention (use of the Guide). Selected facilities received an online orientation to the project and onsite visit from project team leadership prior to launch. Pre and post implementation data were uploaded to a secure section of the project website by the facilities. Three facilities withdrew due to change in top management and a fourth facility provided incomplete data resulting in data for analysis from 12 pilot facilities. Results show the average reduction in readmissions was 31.2% for the project period as compared with the 3-month pre-project period. This presentation will include facility reports of the effect of Guide use on resident and family decision making.

Irreconciliable Differences

I consider debates about Proposition 8, a California initiative that proposed banning same-sex marriage in 2008 after it had been legalized earlier that year. I explore family-making narratives of mothers of color in particular, in relation to political debates in news reports and letters to the editor between June and November 2008. Vociferous debate about children as symbols for the future of the nation engaged nationalist language of rights, equality, and “true Americans” on both sides. Sociopolitical fears about how legalizing same-sex marriage would affect children’s education and moral development infused sociopolitical narratives about the dangers of same-sex marriage for the United States. When the state initiative was passed on election night in November 2008, same-sex marriages were declared unlawful in the state. The simultaneous election of Barack Obama raised racial tensions about whose votes tipped which scales. I explore sociopolitical narratives of racial blame in news discussions of the political outcome.

ОбновленческиймитрополитА.И.Введенский:личностькакгосударственныйпроект

В статье анализируется биография обновленческого митрополита А.И. Введенский в контексте истории движения, где он был главным идеологом. Советский реновационизм был государственной инициативой, поэтому встает вопрос о том, чьи интересы представляли исполнители, личные или общественные деятели. Автор обнаружил готовность А.И. Введенский выполнил любые, порой противоречивые требования советской власти со времен распада Церкви в 1922 году. Поэтому делается вывод, что с 1922 года личность А.И. Введенский был разработан как правительственный проект. Однако все действия, выполненные А.И. Введенский содержал личный компонент. Он хотел бы подчеркнуть свою идеологическую приверженность церковным реформам, искреннее неприятие Патриаршего контроля над Церковью, и с 1918 года он стремился к союзу с правительством. На дебатах и проповеднических проповедях митрополит говорил с внешней торжественностью, что доказывало его лояльность реноваторским идеям. Но после краха обновленчества и до самого последнего дня он не совершал покаяния, которое обеспечило бы ему скромную, хотя и мирную жизнь. Его амбиции постоянно сдерживали его, что подчеркивалось многими современниками.The article analyzes the biography of the Renovationist Metropolitan A.I. Vvedensky in the context of the history of a movement where he was the main ideologist. Soviet Renovationism was a state initiative, therefore comes the question about whose interests were represented by the executors, personal or public appears. The author discovered the willingness of A.I. Vvedensky to perform any, sometimes contradictory, demands of the Soviet government since the Church split in 1922. Therefore, a conclusion is made that since 1922 the personality of A.I. Vvedensky was developed as a government project. However, all the actions performed by A.I. Vvedensky contained a personal component. He would emphasize his ideological commitment to the Church reforms, a sincere rejection of the Patriarchal control over the Church, and since 1918, had been seeking an alliance with the Government. At the debates and Renovationist sermons, the Metropolitan would speak with an external solemnity that proved his loyalty to the Renovationist ideas. But after the Renovationism collapsed and until his dying day, he did not do penance which would provide him with a modest though peaceful life. He was continuously restrained by his ambition which was also underlined by many contemporaries.