Olivier Rubin – författare

The societal consequences of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are severe. They include declining health outcomes from longer illnesses, prolonged stays in hospital, loss of protection for patients undergoing medical procedures, increased health care expenditure, and increased mortality. They also include declining global food security as AMR damages farm animal health and crop yields. Despite AMR being a transboundary crisis, concerted global initiatives that effectively combat AMR have been few and far between.Steering Against Superbugs analyses ways to reduce barriers and create opportunities for coordination. The expert contributions in this volume offer specific and original insights about what global governance of AMR means, and ways to help solve AMR issues. They show that effective governance relies crucially on pursuing local level implementation of key policies, and equitable recognition of solutions across multiple sectors within countries, and across the Global North and South. With the COVID-19 pandemic, societies across the world have been reminded of the devastating consequences of not being able to effectively counter global health threats. AMR is arguably one of the most severe long-term threats to human, animal, and environmental health. There is momentum for global political action around novel and emerging disease threats and Steering Against Superbugs contributes with original and insightful research to inform ongoing and future debates.

Recent years have made apparent we are living in a world of chronic crises: prolonged disasters that continue to impact people's lives long after their onset. Climate change, famine, and the COVID-19 pandemic represent a few of these disasters--instead of a return to "an accepted state of normalcy" in their wake, the ramifications continue to reverberate around the world.In Chronic Crises, Olivier Rubin examines what happens, socially and politically, when the end life of a disaster is characterized by a perpetual state of crisis dynamics. He identifies three distinct types of chronic crisis: seething chronic crises, such as famine and multiple starvation deaths; perpetual chronic crises, including antimicrobial resistance and climate change; and transitional chronic crises, exemplified by COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS. Rubin describes the nature of each category, including the underlying temporal dynamics, the disparate impacts in different parts of the globe and different social groups, and how communities adjust to the crises. He then analyzes the politics, investigating how the different features of the crisis types influence policymakers' attention and response, their ability and incentives to put chronic crises on the political agenda, and the prospects for implementing effective policies. Looking to the future, Rubin provides policy recommendations and practical advice for crisis management dealing with chronic crises moving forward.

Famine is the most extreme manifestation of the existence of poverty, inequality and political apathy. Whereas poverty, hunger and diseases are not easily eradicated in the world today, famines are often perceived to be relatively simple to avert. However, the political incentives to prevent famines are not always present. Inspired by the work of Amartya Sen, whose influential hypothesis that democratic institutions together with a free press provide effective protection from famine, Democracy and Famine is a study combining qualitative and quantitative evidence, analysing the effect of democracy on famine prevention. The book’s overall framework moves from placing political systems at the heart of famine protection to look at the political processes involved.Using a case study based approach drawing on famines from India, Malawi and Niger; Democracy and Famine will be of interest to scholars and students of democracy, comparative politics and international relations.

Given the tendency of books on disasters to predominantly focus on strong geophysical or descriptive perspectives and in-depth accounts of particular catastrophes, Disaster Research provides a much-needed multidisciplinary perspective of the area.This book is is structured thematically around key approaches to disaster research from a range of different, but often complementary academic disciplines. Each chapter presents distinct approaches to disaster research that is anchored in a particular discipline; ranging from the law of disasters and disaster historiography to disaster politics and anthropology of disaster. The methodological and theoretical contributions underlining a specific approach to disasters are discussed and illustrative empirical cases are examined that support and further inform the proposed approach to disaster research.The book thus provides unique insights into fourteen state-of-the-art disciplinary approaches to the understanding of disasters. The theoretical discussions as well as the diverse range of disaster cases should be of interest to both postgraduate and undergraduate students, as well as academics, researchers and policymakers.

Given the tendency of books on disasters to predominantly focus on strong geophysical or descriptive perspectives and in-depth accounts of particular catastrophes, Disaster Research provides a much-needed multidisciplinary perspective of the area.This book is is structured thematically around key approaches to disaster research from a range of different, but often complementary academic disciplines. Each chapter presents distinct approaches to disaster research that is anchored in a particular discipline; ranging from the law of disasters and disaster historiography to disaster politics and anthropology of disaster. The methodological and theoretical contributions underlining a specific approach to disasters are discussed and illustrative empirical cases are examined that support and further inform the proposed approach to disaster research.The book thus provides unique insights into fourteen state-of-the-art disciplinary approaches to the understanding of disasters. The theoretical discussions as well as the diverse range of disaster cases should be of interest to both postgraduate and undergraduate students, as well as academics, researchers and policymakers.

Famine is the most extreme manifestation of the existence of poverty, inequality and political apathy. Whereas poverty, hunger and diseases are not easily eradicated in the world today, famines are often perceived to be relatively simple to avert. However, the political incentives to prevent famines are not always present. Inspired by the work of Amartya Sen, whose influential hypothesis that democratic institutions together with a free press provide effective protection from famine, Democracy and Famine is a study combining qualitative and quantitative evidence, analysing the effect of democracy on famine prevention. The book’s overall framework moves from placing political systems at the heart of famine protection to look at the political processes involved.Using a case study based approach drawing on famines from India, Malawi and Niger; Democracy and Famine will be of interest to scholars and students of democracy, comparative politics and international relations.