Annual Crisis Governance Meeting

Resilience in a wicked world. How to anticipate, cope, adapt, and govern?

Never has so much been spoken about “resilience” as in recent years. According to some, we must ensure that we are better equipped to handle unexpected events, particularly those that can shake us as individuals, families, or communities. Others argue that resilience is not just about what we have, but about what we do. The term “resilience” seems to have ingrained itself into all facets of our society (Tan, 2022). We use it in our daily communications; scientists study the phenomenon, politicians regard it as important, and even large institutions such as the WHO or the European Commission regularly debate the subject with international experts.

Stephanie Duchek (2020) distinguishes three phases in resilience: anticipation, coping, and adaptation. Each phase requires specific mental and behavioral actions and is supported by necessary resources. From a crisis governance perspective, one could argue that this approach is a good starting point; however, organizations should also commit to an (inter)organizational system of roles, rules, structures, and processes that reliably enables them to prepare for and cope with crises effectively (Albers et al., 2024).

We will further explore this theme during the second edition of the Crisis Governance Event, which will take place on September 18 and 19, 2025. Both researchers and practitioners are invited to share their knowledge, experiences, insights, or issues at this interactive two-day meeting in Antwerp, Belgium. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your proposal for presentation.

The Crisis Governance Event will center on the following four domains:

Anticipation

• Signal overload and confusing signals: How do we deal with them? 
• How to filter the right signals? Which signals do you trust?
• How to deal with stress caused by confusing signals?
• Or should we better set up a stakeholder network prior to a crisis?
• If so, how to design, organize, and coordinate the network?

Coping

• Hybrid threads – how to identify and avert them?
• How to manage (dis)trust when it comes to the necessary exchange of information during a crisis?
• Stakeholder management in crisis, easier said than organized?
• What is legitimate to do in a crisis, and what isn’t?
• New/emergent/temporary networks during crisis

Adaptation

• What did we learn from crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic? And what not?
• Why is it so difficult to learn? Is it the learning or the inability to change?
• Cognition versus behavior; where in the process is the bottleneck that obstructs learning?
• What are the barriers and enablers to change organizations in anticipating a crisis?

Governance

• What are the roles, rules, structures, and processes that reliably enable organizations to effectively prepare for and cope with crises?
• Do we have to focus on an organizational level or on an inter-organizational level for crisis governance? Who do we need to include?
• What are the preconditions for setting up such an (inter)organizational system?
• How does crisis governance for private organizations differ from public organizations?

All the suggested topics serve as examples of presentations that may fall within the specific domain.