CERGAS Seminar "Who Owns the Emergency? Omnicrises, Occupational Groups and Health Systems"

This autumn the UK government asked every household to keep a three-day emergency kit. Its Be Ready campaign lists eighteen hazards, from floods and heatwaves to cyber attacks and infectious disease, and asks citizens to manage on their own for three days while support reaches those most in need. This seminar asks what happens when an emergency spreads beyond any single organization or institution, and when no one can say what kind of emergency it is or who has the authority to respond. Drawing on recently published work, I introduce the notion of omnicrisis, a systemic disruption that escalates across institutional domains and unsettles the jurisdictional order through which social life is coordinated. Taking the Covid-19 pandemic as the central case, I argue that omnicrises are crises of authority, in which occupational groups contest and renegotiate their mandate, jurisdiction and expertise. I trace how these groups avow, delegate and realign authority as the crisis unfolds, and how memory work shapes the new normal that follows, through either progressive or restorative repair. The seminar closes with policy and practical implications, from the need for jurisdictional resilience in crisis preparedness to the role of memory work in deciding which crisis arrangements endure.

Speaker:

Gerardo Patriotta (gp735@bath.ac.uk) is Professor of Organization Studies at the School of Management, University of Bath. His research focuses on organizational sensemaking, particularly in the contexts of crises and breakdowns, transitions between routine and non-routine events, learning from errors, face-to-face interactions, identity processes, and the dynamics of occupations and professions. His work has combined sociological and organizational theory to understand the work practices and behaviors of, amongst others, shopfloor operators, courtroom judges, business consultants, global bank managers, air force pilots, e-market sellers, chefs, migrant workers, news workers, and healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and radiologists.
Gerardo’s research has been published in leading management journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, Human Relations, Organization Science, and Organization Studies. 
Gerardo is a former General Editor of the Journal of Management Studies.

Link zoom:

https://unibocconi-it.zoom.us/j/93760137567?pwd=5H6McOLauTObFvafw2Hzibqa0RSXmu.1

Meeting ID:

937 6013 7567

Passcode:

285644

Lunch at the end of the meeting: for those willing to participate in person, click here before the 6th of November.