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- Andrén, Rasmus
(författare)
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Anxiety and (In)Security in Times of Calamity : The 2014 flood and the Kashmir conflict
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Environmental calamities and disasters are increasingly found to affect political stability and conflicts. Despite a plethora of research across a range of disciplines, however, explanations remain elusive. The theoretical shortcomings of prior research coalesce into an overarching problem concerning how to conceptualize disasters as influencing conflicts through the disruptions they impose on identities. I argue that how identities intermingle with the disaster-conflict nexus can be further advanced by drawing on ontological security studies (OSS). By investigating the disastrous flood in the Kashmir valley in 2014, and its role in the brewing unrest that climaxed in 2016 amid separatist conflict, I argue that disasters influence conflicts through processes of securitizing and desecuritizing an ontologically secure Self. That is to say, that the search for stable and coherent identities following disasters can mitigate and reinforce conflicts. Nested within this argument are three core contributions. First, I address the multifaceted dynamics by which the Self and identities are unsettled and challenged, or affirmed and reified amid disasters and conflict, to show how we can read disasters as disruptive amid already ongoing crises. Second, I theorize how the search for stable and ontologically secure identities can engender securitization and desecuritization of subjectivity at the same time, exacerbating and mitigating different dynamics in a conflict. Third, in doing so, the dissertation suggests that future research on disasters, and environmental challenges more broadly, should be less concerned with a binary understanding of their impact on conflicts and more concerned about their multidimensional relations.
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| 2. |
- Castenfors, Kerstin, et al.
(författare)
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Anthrax Letters in Sweden? : Analysis of how FOI’s Division of NBC-Protection managed the ”Anthrax Letters” during the fall of 2001 – from a Crisis Management Perspective
- 2004
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- When the so-called anthrax letters began to appear in the U.S.A. in early October 2001, FOI(the Swedish National Defense Research Agency), prepared to put its personnel and its expertknowledge at society's disposal, in case Sweden should be subjected to similar incidents.When the first parcel1 with suspect contents appeared in Sweden in the middle of October,FOI-NBC-Protection (the Division of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection, in thenorthern city of Umeå), abbrev. FOI-NBC, undertook the task of analyzing its contents. Atthe request of the Swedish National Police Board (RPS), FOI also agreed to test the contentsof any further such parcels that might turn up. FOI is traditionally a research and advisoryorganization, not a day-to-day operative organization. Thus, NBC-Protection had to make anumber of quick decisions concerning management and re-organization, in order to meet thedemands of the situation.Since the term "crisis" is central to this report, a short explanation of what the authors meanby this term is justified. A crisis is a situation and a process in which decision makersperceive2 all of the following:• a threat to fundamental values• severe time pressure• uncertainlySuch situations can have their origins both in internal organizational factors and in externalfactors (Sundelius, Stern & Bynander, 1997).This report presents an analysis of interviews and testimonies given by staff of FOI-NBC, inconnection with the so-called anthrax crisis. The situation/process which arose at that timewas experienced not only as fundamentally threatening to society, but also to FOI-NBC'scredibility as an organization. It also involved intense time pressure and a great deal of dayto-day uncertainly.However, crises not only involve threats, but also present new opportunities. Morespecifically, if FOI NBC-Protection could successfully master the situation, this could onlylead to an increase in its credibility as a (expert) knowledge organization.In the aftermath of the “anthrax crisis”, FOI-NBC was – naturally – interested in finding out ifits staff had been given adequate means to do a proper job, if delegated responsibilities wereaccepted, how assigned tasks were carried out and if the decision making process wasemployed in a competent manner. In short, how well did the organization actually functionwhen, during that short, intense period in the fall of 2001, it was forced to transform itselffrom an "advisory" organization to an "operative" one?Thus, in the spring of 2002, FOI's Division of Defense Analysis in Stockholm was given thetask of studying how FOI-NBC in Umeå handled the events of 2001.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Deverell, Edward, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Culture Clash – How organizational culture affects effective crisis management
- 2008
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Given the importance of organizational culture in explaining organizational behavior, it is surprising that research on how organizational culture affects organizations’ ability to react to and act in times of crisis has received limited interest. In this paper we examine how specific organizational cultures affected crisis responses in three cases – the handling of the so called anthrax letters in Sweden by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) in 2001, the electrical power company Birka Energy’s management of a big tunnel fire in Stockholm, Sweden in 2001 and the television broadcasting company TV 4’s response to September 11, 2001. The cases have been researched by the use of a detailed process tracing of the main decision making occasions that the organizations confronted that e.g. included interviews with key participants in the crisis management. The studies show that in the FOI case, the democratic expert advisory culture led to a crisis response that was characterized by vague leadership and lack of decision making capacity. In the case of Birka Energy, the technical engineering culture resulted in a crisis response that lacked understanding of symbolic and communicative dimensions of crisis communication, focusing solely on the technical and operational parts of the crisis. The TV 4 case on the other hand shows a flexible organizational culture that managed to handle the change in mission.
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| 5. |
- Deverell, Edward, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Destruct, direct and suppress : Sputnik narratives on the Nordic countries
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of International Communication. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1321-6597 .- 2158-3471. ; 27:1, s. 15-37
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Projection of strategic narratives to gain competitive advantages is a central feature in the global competition for status and power. This article presents a comparative narrative analysis of how the Russian state sponsored news platform Sputnik narrates Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden 2014–2019. The objectives are to uncover what negative work strategic narratives can perform and to decipher how adverse narratives are constructed. The findings suggest that Sputnik uses a mix of standard strategies and tailor-made narratives, working to destruct, direct and suppress the Nordics. The analysis exposed distinct differences as Sputnik narrated Sweden and Denmark more negatively than Norway and Finland. The narratives can serve to divide and weaken the Nordics and the EU, and undermine international reputations of each state. The strategy of division through narratives is particularly problematic as polarization challenges Western democracies and the EU. The article furthers narrative research by testing a recently crafted analytical framework and by presenting findings that indicate a need for a broadened research agenda. Whereas previous research has primarily centred on how malign information influence can harm democracy, our results indicate that narratives can cause a broader variety of harms.
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| 8. |
- Deverell, Edward, et al.
(författare)
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Organizational culture effects on strategy and adaptability in crisis management
- 2010
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Ingår i: Risk Management. - : Macmillan Publishers Ltd.. - 1460-3799 .- 1743-4637. ; 12:2, s. 116-134
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents a typology of temporal organizational responsesto crises in public perception aimed at examining the ability of organizations torestructure in order to cope with acute crisis management challenges. The typologyis based on organizations ’ capacities to launch crisis management strategies andadapt their managerial and operational levels to deal with crises. According to thetypology, the Fully Adapting Organization manages to adapt both its strategy andits managerial and operational levels to deal with the crisis. The Semi-AdaptingOrganization changes its strategy but lacks the capacity to change managerial andoperational levels according to the new strategy. The Non-Adapting Organizationdoes not grasp the importance of strategy change in the first place. Based on threeinductive case studies the study concludes that organizational culture plays animportant role in this process where the Semi and the Non-Adapting organizationswere dominated by strong expert cultures that proved to be less inclined to change.In contrast, the Fully Adapting Organization had deliberately fostered an organizationalculture in which flexibility was a cornerstone.
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| 9. |
- Deverell, Edward, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Perspektiv på krishantering : Introduktion
- 2015
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Ingår i: Perspektiv på krishantering. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144099996 ; , s. 5-18
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 10. |
- Deverell, Edward, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding Public Agency Communication : the case of the Swedish Armed Forces
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Public Affairs. - : Wiley. - 1472-3891 .- 1479-1854. ; 15:4, s. 387-396
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article suggests a diagnostic framework of public communication intended to capture new communication strategies used by Armed Forces across Europe to legitimize new tasks and recruit new personnel. Three distinct communicative models that impact differently on democratic values and public support are suggested: an Old Public Administration (OPA) model influenced by bureaucratic values, a New Public Management (NPM) model fuelled by market values and a deliberative model labelled ‘New Public Service’ (NPS) that is largely influenced by proponents of ‘e-democracy’. A case study of the communication of the Swedish Armed Forces identifies a lingering bureaucratic (OPA) ideal. The market ideal (NPM) however clearly dominates. The article concludes that communication along market purposes, principles and practices risks distancing Armed Forces further from society. Yet, an embryonic deliberative ideal (NPS)—much fuelled by the use of social media such as blogs—was also identified. This growing ideal holds the potential of infusing deliberative vigor into the organization and presumably facilitates the bridging of the gap to society.
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