Sociotechnical Resilience: A Preliminary Concept

Exploring health information system resilience during COVID-19 pandemic: case studies from Norway, Sri Lanka & Rwanda

The study aims at exploring health system resilience by defining the scope on health information systems, one of the six building blocks of the health system. The empirical evidence is derived using qualitative data collection and analysis in the context of Norway, Sri Lanka and Rwanda during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case studies elicit bounce back and bounce forward properties as well as the agility as major attributes of resilience present across the countries. Existing local capacity, networking and collaborations, flexible digital platforms and enabling antecedent conditions are identified as socio-technical determinants of information system resilience based on the case studies across the countries.

Teaching with collective resilience during COVID-19: Korean teachers and collaborative professionalism

This study applies system-focused resilience and collaborative professionalism to examine how teachers in Korea collectively developed resilience and transformed teaching during COVID-19. Using qualitative data from seven individual interviews and four focus groups, we found Korean teachers navigated complex challenges (rapidly changing policies, online teaching, exacerbated learning gaps, and excessive social pressure) and utilized contextual resources (collective autonomy and flexibility, solidity and solidarity, and collective responsibility) to develop strategies (collaborative inquiry, timely communication, and envisioning the future of schooling). The study extends teacher resilience toward more collective and communal, from the individual level, by linking resilience to collaborative systemic changes.

Adaptive Resilience of Complex Safety-Critical Sociotechnical Systems: Toward a Unified Conceptual Framework and Its Formalization

Resilience is commonly understood as the capacity for a system to maintain a desirable state while undergoing adversity or to return to a desirable state as quickly as possible after being impacted. In this paper, we focus on resilience for complex sociotechnical systems (STS), specifically those where safety is an important aspect. Two main desiderata for safety-critical STS to be resilient are adaptive capacity and adaptation. Formal studies integrating human cognition and social aspects are needed to quantify the capacity to adapt and the effects of adaptation. We propose a conceptual framework to elaborate on the concept of resilience of safety-critical STS, based on adaptive capacity and adaptation and how this can be formalized. A set of mechanisms is identified that is necessary for STS to have the capacity to adapt. Mechanisms belonging to adaptive capacity include situation awareness, sensemaking, monitoring, decision-making, coordination, and learning. It is posited that the two mechanisms required to perform adaptation are anticipation and responding. This framework attempts to coherently integrate the key components of the multifaceted concept of STS adaptive resilience. This can then be used to pursue the formal representation of adaptive resilience, its modeling, and its operationalization in real-world safety-critical STS.

Designing antifragile social-technical information systems in an era of big data

Purpose

To explore the value and the case for designing antifragile socio-technical information systems (IS) in an era of big data, moving beyond traditional notions of IS design towards systems that can leverage uncertainty for gains.

Design/methodology/approach

A design science research (DSR) approach was adopted, comprising four stages, including problem identification and solutions definition, conceptual artifact or socio-technical system design, preliminary evaluation, and communication and knowledge capture.

Findings

A conceptual socio-technical artifact that identifies antecedents to antifragile IS design. When operationalised, the antecedents may produce the desired antifragile outcome. The antecedents are categorised as value propositions, design decisions and system capabilities.

Research limitations/implications

This research is conceptual in nature, applied and evaluated in a single big data analytics case study in Facebook-Cambridge Analytica. Future research should empirically validate across a range of real-world big data contexts, beyond the presented case study.

Practical implications

Uncertainty generally results in socio-technical system failures, impacting individuals, organisations and communities. Conversely, antifragile IS can respond favourably to the shocks and stressors brought forth by periods of elevated uncertainty.

Social implications

Antifragile IS can drive socio-technical systems to respond favourably to uncertainty and stressors. Typically, these socio-technical systems are large, complex structures, with increased connectivity and the requirement to generate, process, analyse and use large datasets. When these systems fail, it affects individuals, organisations and communities.

Originality/value

Existing IS design methodologies and frameworks largely ignore antifragility as a possible designable outcome. Extant research is limited to abstract architectural design, and approaches based on the proposition of principles. This research contributes to knowledge of antifragile IS design, by deriving a conceptual artifact or socio-technical system based on antecedent-outcome relationships that leverage uncertainty towards performance gains.

The Influence of Residents' Resilience on the Recovery in the Torrential Rain in Western Japan in 2018

In 2018 torrential rain caused serious human suffering and damage to property in western Japan. Following such disasters, the investigation of residents' subsequent recovery process is important to determine the support required in affected areas and disaster risk management. This study examines the effects of psychological resilience on residents' life recovery following the torrential rain. We conducted a web survey with 1,000 residents in 13 districts of Hiroshima prefecture and 6 districts of Okayama prefecture that suffered the most damage caused by the torrential rain. The survey used the "recovery calendar" approach to assess residents' life recovery from the disaster. Results indicated that residents who had suffered relatively little damage began to recover during the "disaster utopia" phase up to 2 months after the disaster. However, residents who had suffered serious damage began to recover during the "reentry to everyday life" phase up to 6 months after the disaster. Moreover, older residents or residents with strong psychological resilience who suffered serious damage were likely to recover sooner than those with weaker psychological resilience. Therefore, this study indicates the importance of an approach to disaster recovery according to the level of damage, phased time period, and psychological resilience.

A Study on the Integration of Resilience and Smart City Concepts in Urban Systems

The continuous growth of cities brings out various concerns for improved development and management of the multifaceted urban systems, including those of resilience and smartness. Despite the many significant efforts in the research field, both notions remain changeable, thus retaining the lack of commonly accepted conceptual and terminological frameworks. The paper’s research goals are to designate the current direct and indirect links in the conceptualizations and research trends of the resilience and smart city frameworks and to prove the potential of the conceptual convergence between them in the context of urban systems. The application of a semi-systematic literature review, including bibliometric evidence and followed by content analysis, has led to the observation that as the resilience discourse opens up to embrace other dimensions, including technology, the smart city research turns its interest to the perspective of urban protection. Therefore, both concepts share the goal for urban sustainability realized through specific capacities and processes and operationalized with the deployment of technology. The paper’s findings suggest that the conceptual and operational foundations of these two concepts could support the emergence of an integrated framework. Such a prospect acknowledges the instrumental role of the smart city approach in the pursuit of urban resilience and unfolds a new model for sustainable city management and development.

Maintaining critical infrastructure resilience to natural hazards during the COVID-19 pandemic: hurricane preparations by US energy companies

The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to compromise the ability of critical infrastructure utilities to respond to or mitigate natural hazards like wildfires and hurricanes. This article describes the ways that an energy organization, the regional transmission operator PJM, is preparing for hurricanes during the COVID-19 pandemic. PJM is using a combination of technological and organizational processes to prepare for hurricanes during the pandemic. Activities include the development of a third control room to increase redundancy and maintaining social distance at control center, investment in more resilient communications technology to maintain connectivity, and taking a holistic approach to identifying issues related to supply chain and fuel security. With this mix of organizational and technological processes, we argue that critical infrastructure resilience should be understood as a sociotechnical construct and identify several recommendations for improving resilience. The article has implications for policymakers working to maintain infrastructure resilience to natural hazards during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Decision-Making Analytics Using Plural Resilience Parameters for Adaptive Management of Complex Systems

It is critical for complex systems to effectively recover, adapt, and reorganize after system disruptions. Common approaches for evaluating system resilience typically study single measures of performance at one time, such as with a single resilience curve. However, multiple measures of performance are needed for complex systems that involve many components, functions, and noncommensurate valuations of performance. Hence, this article presents a framework for: (1) modeling resilience for complex systems with competing measures of performance, and (2) modeling decision making for investing in these systems using multiple stakeholder perspectives and multicriteria decision analysis. This resilience framework, which is described and demonstrated in this article via a real-world case study, will be of interest to managers of complex systems, such as supply chains and large-scale infrastructure networks.