The Routledge Handbook on Crisis, Polycrisis, and Public Administration
Tonya E Thornton editor Kim Moloney editor Gloria J Billingsley editor Bok Gyo Jeong editor Pablo Sanabria-Pulido editor Eric Zeemering editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:18th Mar '25
£230.00
This title is due to be published on 18th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This volume considers how local, national, and global crises with differing durations, sizes, and impacts challenge the public sector to respond.
Within the public administration and policy disciplines, there has been limited recognition about the nature of, linkages among, and the response options for crises and polycrises, when more than one crisis, emergency, disaster, or catastrophe (whether human-caused or natural) simultaneously impacts citizens in one geographical location. This handbook gathers experts from different fields to explore how each crisis challenges human capacity, information technology, and communication capabilities, and how public leaders must respond. These expert contributions are grouped within five thematic sections:
- Structures in Crisis: A North-South Dialogue, to engage national and global perspectives on how political, social, and economic structures respond during crises
- Agents in Crisis: A Cross-Actor Dialogue, on how agents respond to crises
- Human Capital and Information Technology in Crisis, exploring how these resources interact during crises
- Public Sector Communication in Crisis, examining issues of government and governance in effective crisis communication
- Practitioners in Crisis, a reminder to the discipline that important context and realities are missed if practitioner realities are overlooked.
Chapters in the book engage 23 countries and one overseas dependency along with 14 crisis events. Eighteen chapters are focused on one crisis event while ten chapters directly or indirectly engage polycrises.
As crises and polycrises become a constancy of our time, this volume will be of great interest to students, researchers, and practitioners of public administration and public policy.
“This exceptional book introduces the concepts of polycrises and crisis-constant as a framework for understanding the dynamics that near-continual change and uncertainty create for public administrators responsible for managing public services. Initiated in response to COVID-19, a remarkable roster of international co-authors present the problem of polycrisis in global context.”
Louise Comfort, Professor Emerita, University of Pittsburgh, USA
“The Covid-19 pandemic trained the spotlight on our new macro reality – multi-layered and sequential crises that know no geographic boundaries. Our new reality demands an expanded analytical toolbox where we can nimbly confront our real-time polycrisis. The authors in this volume do exactly that, construct a toolkit for effectively charting a clear-eyed path forward that embraces the realities of our crises today.”
Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, Dean and Professor, Clinton School of Public Service, University of Arkansas, USA
“Crises are global, pandemics are global – but public administration scholarship, often enough, is not. Narrow Western perspectives abound, both regarding what is studied and how. The Routledge Handbook on Crisis, Polycrisis, and Public Administration however is truly global in outlooks and topics and therefore makes a significant contribution, not only to its vital topic, but also to the public administration discipline generally.”
Wolfgang Drechsler, TalTech, UCL IIPP, Universitas Indonesia, and Harvard University
“The Routledge Handbook on Crisis, Polycrisis, and Public Administration is a vital resource offering profound insights into handling complex crises across local, national, and global landscapes. Merging detailed analysis with actionable guidance, it is a must-read for scholars and practitioners interested in enhancing capacity for crisis management during difficult times.”
Robert C. Orr, Professor and Dean, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, USA
“With a diverse set of authors and cases, this book provides an excellent starting point with key lessons for anyone charged with organizing and communicating with the public in times of disaster or societal crisis. For students who want to go into public service or humanitarian work, the book provides a valuable discussion of challenges the public sector faces in managing significant contemporary crises and disasters. The crosscutting collaborative research the handbook reflects, is precisely the kind of joint approach we need to build capacity and resilience in the face of adversity.”
Lina Svedin, Professor, School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Air University, USA
ISBN: 9781032367583
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 453g
362 pages