B6551 - ANALISI E GESTIONE DELLE CRISI

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide a thorough understanding of the main theories related to crisis management and disaster analysis, from both organizational and policy perspectives.
Upon completion of the course, the student is able to: Critically discuss the scientific literature on the causes and dynamics of crises and disasters. Distinguish between different types of crises, and identify the factors that foster them. Analyze the stages and main challenges of a crisis. Identify factors that help prevent, contain and resolve crises.

Course contents

The following topics will be covered: Different types of crises - Preparing for crises - Recognizing warning signs - Understanding crises (sensemaking) - Decision making under conditions of urgency and uncertainty - Emergency plans and improvisation - Crisis responses and coordination of responders - Communication, leadership and consensus building in crisis situations.

Readings/Bibliography

Required readings for both 'attending' and 'nonattending' students

Textbook

Boin, A., P. ‘t Hart, E. Stern & B. Sundelius (2017). The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership under Pressure. Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1, 2, 3 e 4.

Articles and Chapters

Ansell, C., & Boin, A. (2019). Taming deep uncertainty: The potential of pragmatist principles for understanding and improving strategic crisis management. Administration & Society, 51(7), 1079-1112.

Ansell, C., Boin, A., & Keller, A. (2010). Managing transboundary crises: Identifying the building blocks of an effective response system. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 18(4), 195-207.

Boin, A., Ekengren, M., & Rhinard, M. (2020). Hiding in plain sight: Conceptualizing the creeping crisis. Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy, 11(2), 116-138.

Boin, A., ‘t Hart, P., Kuipers, S. (2018). “The Crisis Approach”. In: Rodríguez, H., Donner, W., Trainor, J. (eds) Handbook of Disaster Research. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham

Capano, G., & Toth, F. (2024). Controversial issues in crisis management. Bridging public policy and crisis management to better understand and address crises. Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy.

Profeti, S. & Toth, F. (2024), The many faces of crises: a ‘reponse-oriented’ classification proposal, paper presented at the International Workshops on Public Policy (IWPP4), Guadalajara, 26-28 June 2024.

Rosenthal, U., & Kouzmin, A. (1997). Crises and Crisis Management: Toward Comprehensive Government Decision Making. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 7(2), 277-304.

Sutcliffe, K. M. (2011). High reliability organizations (HROs). Best Practice & Research Clinical Anaesthesiology, 25(2), 133-144.

Weick, K.E. (1998). Introductory essay—Improvisation as a mindset for organizational analysis. Organization Science, 9(5), 543-555.

 

Additional mandatory readings for 'non-attending' students only

Boin, A., McConnell, A., & ‘t Hart, P. (2021). Governing the pandemic: The politics of navigating a mega-crisis. Springer Nature.

Boin, A., Ekengren, M., & Rhinard, M. (2021). Understanding the creeping crisis. Springer Nature.

 

Slides and additional materials on the cases analyzed will be uploaded, lecture by lecture, on virtuale.unibo.it, and constitute exam syllabus.

Teaching methods

The course is designed as a 'workshop' and 'seminar' class, based on the analysis of concrete cases and class discussion - also in small groups - of the main critical elements related to public crisis management.

Students are therefore expected to actively participate in class, and to do the 'homework' (both at home and in class) that will be assigned from time to time by the lecturer.

The final class meetings ('seminar sessions') will be devoted to students' oral presentations, according to a schedule to be determined by the end of October.

Assessment methods

Attending students (students who have attended at least 16 out of 20 lectures will be considered 'attending'):

§ In-class midterm written test (20% of final grade).

§ In-class participation and oral presentation of a crisis case (assigned by the lecturer) during 'seminar sessions' (50% of the final grade)

§ Final paper (30% of final grade) analyzing the assigned crisis case (the same case analyzed in the oral presentation) in light of the theories and concepts discussed during the course.

'Attending' students who are not satisfied with the grade received may retake the exam in 'non-attending' mode.

'NON-attending' students (those who have not attended 80% of the lectures or who have not given the 'oral presentation' will be considered as such) will be assessed through a final (in-person) written exam. The exam will consist of 5 open-ended questions (on the entire 'non-attending' syllabus) to which students will have to provide answers of about 10 lines each.

Teaching tools

Topics will be presented through the analysis and discussion of several crisis cases.

Office hours

See the website of Federico Toth