Leadership for Disaster Resilience : Lessons from India

This book comprehensively conceptualises disaster resilience leadership within the macro context of a risk society. Leadership for disaster resilience has gained prominence in the face of global environmental change, and the need for collaboration, integration, and synergy in addressing this crisis is starker than ever. Drawing on case studies from across India, the volume focuses on leaderships of individuals, bureaucratic and political actors, civil society actors, and institutions. It looks at the ways in which disaster resilience leadership can address key challenges through the application of such theoretical perspectives as integrative public leadership, critical new institutionalism, and comparative realisation focused approaches to social justice. It highlights current leadership practices and envisages sustainable solutions to the environmental crisis by emphasising the need for disaster resilience leadership that could bring about systemic and socio-structural change.

Presenting fresh perspectives on leadership research, the book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of disaster management, social work, management studies, development studies, environmental studies, and public policy. It will also be useful for NGOs and professionals working in the public sector and with civil society bodies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Jacquleen Joseph is Professor at the Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies ( JTSDS) at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She has a master’s in social work, followed by a MPhil and PhD in Psychiatric Social Work from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), India. She has been associated with JTSDS since its inception, and presently is the Dean and Chairperson of the Centre for Disaster Management. Her research, field action, and teaching are around psychosocial care and support in disaster and humanitarian contexts. She is actively engaged in long-term research and field action in the psychosocial domain in several disasters, starting with the 2004 tsunami to that of the Nepal earthquake in 2015 and COVID pandemic. Some of the recent research and mobility grants in her areas of research interest are Disaster Resilience Leadership Research and Fellowship Project (BMG research grants 2017–19), Transboundary Water Governance and Capacity Building for Civic Engagement (ICIMOD―HUC Research Networking Grant, 2021), Epidemic Prediction and Risk Reduction using AI/ML (Newton Bhabha Research Networking Grant, 2021–22), and Disaster Risk Creation in Urban Resettlement Processes (Independent Research Fund Denmark―2021–25).

Suchita Awasthi holds a master’s in climate science and policy from TERI School of Advanced Studies, India. Her specialisation involves vulnerability to disasters and climate change, community-based adaptation, and water resources management. She has almost ten years of experience in integrating climate science expertise into development research and practice. She is currently National Project Coordinator at Wetlands International South Asia. She has previously worked with not-for-profit organisations on rural development, community-based adaptation projects, and development of participatory approaches for vulnerability assessments. She has also worked with TISS as Senior Documentation Officer on projects related to disaster resilience building.

Zubin R. Mulla is Professor at the School of Management and Labour Studies at TISS, Mumbai. He has a degree in mechanical engineering, followed by a post-graduate diploma in business management and a doctorate in management from XLRI―Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur. Prior to joining academics in 2005, he worked for seven years in engineering design and management consulting. As Management Consultant, he coordinated large-scale change management efforts in manufacturing and service organisations. His research interests include transformational leadership, values, Indian philosophy, careers, and evidence-based management. His research involves use of content analysis, survey methods, laboratory experiments, and field experiments. His pioneering contribution has been in conceptualising and validating the construct of Karma-Yoga in management literature.