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Covid-19 Impacts and Recovery: Ethical, Economic, Legal, Societal and Eco-system Issues

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 19385

Special Issue Editors

Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Interests: deliberative democracy as it relates to sustainability; governance, ethical, social, cultural, educational aspects of sustainability
Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, Curtin University, Bentley, Perth, WA 6102, Australia
Interests: innovation; sustainability; governance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Despite decades of warnings about a global pandemic, the world was totally unprepared for COVID-19. The impacts have been severe—exposing the underbelly of the socioeconomic divides within societies across the globe, with the weakest and poorest being disproportionately affected. Concomitantly, however, there has been talk that this dislocation to business-as-usual could provide an opportunity to reset our socioeconomic systems to support a more sustainable and equitable world.

Public debate has unearthed a broad range of issues relating to impacts and recovery, including ethical, economic, societal, legal, political, and ecosystem issues. This Special Issue is interested in practical research outcomes as well as theoretical submissions that focus on how one or more of these issues could help us to transform the disaster of COVID-19 into an opportunity to turn the curve toward more sustainable and regenerative societies. Are there any insights that research on innovation, transitions, sustainability, and governance or any related filed can provide?

Against the background of the impacts of COVID-19, we invite articles which focus on global, national, and local implications as well as the potential redesign and innovation proposed to support a more sustainable future. Submissions addressing how the connections and communications between science and society could be improved would also be welcome. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.


Prof. Dr. Janette Hartz-Karp
Prof. Dora Marinova
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • governance
  • sustainability
  • innovation
  • development
  • transition
  • transformation
  • economic
  • inequality
  • ecosystem
  • legality
  • democracy

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 317 KiB  
Article
Government Support and Institutions’ Intermediation throughout Companies’ Adaptation to the COVID-19 Crisis
by Helder Marcos Freitas Pereira and Maria Sylvia Macchione Saes
Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5450; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14095450 - 01 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1224
Abstract
The current health and economic crisis is an unprecedented event in the recent history of humanity. Given the lack of treatment and the rapid spread of the virus, several countries and/or local governments had to adopt measures of social distancing and movement restriction. [...] Read more.
The current health and economic crisis is an unprecedented event in the recent history of humanity. Given the lack of treatment and the rapid spread of the virus, several countries and/or local governments had to adopt measures of social distancing and movement restriction. The scenario set by the pandemic, therefore, brought up the need for quick adaptation and innovation, so companies could avoid liquidity and bankruptcy issues. Additionally, as a means to prevent firms’ problems from generating a major macro-economic crisis, governments had to offer a range of support programs as ways to sustain employment and income. Given the dire need to find new ways to conduct businesses, this article sought to understand whether or not government support is a key factor for organizations to adjust or convert—totally or partially—their products or services. The applied methodology was logistic regression, and to solve eventual endogeneity problems, we applied the bivariate Probit model. More than 11,000 observations were included in the main model. The results showed that government support was an important element for companies to adapt their products and services during the first wave of COVID-19. Therefore, companies in countries with stronger institutional environments performed better than those in weaker settings. Full article
22 pages, 1418 KiB  
Article
The Effects of Health Crisis on Economic Growth, Health and Movement of Population
by Constantin Anghelache, Mădălina-Gabriela Anghel, Ștefan Virgil Iacob, Mirela Panait, Irina Gabriela Rădulescu, Alina Gabriela Brezoi and Adrian Miron
Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4613; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14084613 - 12 Apr 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1981
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which was triggered in 2019 with oscillating evolution in 2020 and 2021, was a factor that has had dramatic effects on the economic growth of countries worldwide. In the context of the pandemic crisis, population health has deteriorated; education [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which was triggered in 2019 with oscillating evolution in 2020 and 2021, was a factor that has had dramatic effects on the economic growth of countries worldwide. In the context of the pandemic crisis, population health has deteriorated; education and economic activity in all the countries around the world have been affected. The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the special situations that humanity is experiencing as a result of the unprecedented effects that the COVID-19 crisis is having on the socioeconomic evolution. Specific statistical econometric methods (such as analysis of linear correlations, multiple linear regression, analysis based on dynamics indicators, and spectral analysis, comparability based on indices) were applied to highlight the evolution and future prospects of the COVID-19 virus worldwide. The COVID-19 crisis has generated another major issue for mankind, along with global warming and the energy transition, namely, population health. For this reason, in this study, we focused on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on population health in a broader context; the sustained growth of populations in developing countries and aging populations in developed economies. Full article
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23 pages, 7052 KiB  
Article
Street Recovery in the Age of COVID-19: Simultaneous Design for Mobility, Customer Traffic and Physical Distancing
by Liang Wen, Dora Marinova, Jeffrey Kenworthy and Xiumei Guo
Sustainability 2022, 14(6), 3653; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14063653 - 21 Mar 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2727
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between urban traffic, retail location and disease control during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and tries to find a way to simultaneously address these issues for the purpose of street recovery. Drawing on the concept of the 15 min [...] Read more.
This paper explores the relationship between urban traffic, retail location and disease control during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and tries to find a way to simultaneously address these issues for the purpose of street recovery. Drawing on the concept of the 15 min city, the study also aims at seeking COVID-19 exit paths and next-normal operating models to support long-term business prosperity using a case study of Royal Street, East Perth in Western Australia. Nearly half of the shops became vacant or closed at the end of 2020 along the east section of Royal Street, demonstrating the fragility of small business in a car-oriented street milieu that is inadequately supported by proper physical, digital and social infrastructure. A key finding from the analysis is the formulation of the concept of the Minute City. This describes a truly proximity-centred and socially driven hyper-local city, where residents and retailers work together on the local street as a walkable public open space (other than movement space), and benefit from ameliorated traffic flow, improved business location and a safer, connected community. Full article
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12 pages, 3958 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Impact of Policy Measures in Reducing the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of South Asia
by Dilawar Khan, Nihal Ahmed, Bahtiyar Mehmed and Ihtisham ul Haq
Sustainability 2021, 13(20), 11315; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132011315 - 13 Oct 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 1906
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is considered to be the world’s most urgent health disaster and the greatest challenge humanity has faced since World War II. One of the most significant concerns is the effectiveness of the extraordinary efforts undertaken around the world to prevent [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic is considered to be the world’s most urgent health disaster and the greatest challenge humanity has faced since World War II. One of the most significant concerns is the effectiveness of the extraordinary efforts undertaken around the world to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This study applied the Westerlund cointegration test and the Pooled Mean Group–Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PMG-ARDL) model to investigate the effectiveness of government policy measures in reducing the COVID-19 pandemic using weekly data for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2021. The results of the Westerlund cointegration test validate the presence of a cointegration relationship between government policy measures and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, results of PMG-ARDL show that economic support, stringency, and health and containment measures play a significant role in reducing the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study concluded that pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical measures have a substantial impact on mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic in South Asia. Policy implications such as government financial support for poor families, stringency, and health and containment measures must be adopted during the pandemic to curb/reduce the spread of COVID-19. Furthermore, it is also recommended to provide vaccines free of charge to developing countries and a stimulus package to support health research to expand the capacity for rapid vaccine in this region. Full article
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28 pages, 3238 KiB  
Article
COVID-19 Impacts and Sustainability Strategies for Regional Recovery in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Opportunities
by Suparak Suriyankietkaew and Suthep Nimsai
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8907; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13168907 - 09 Aug 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 9995
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis is threatening our progressive social, ecological and economic development toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Studies of its impacts on sustainable development in emerging economies and on fast-growing regional development, such as Southeast Asia or [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis is threatening our progressive social, ecological and economic development toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Studies of its impacts on sustainable development in emerging economies and on fast-growing regional development, such as Southeast Asia or the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), are scarce to date. This paper aims to investigate the COVID-19 impacts and identify challenges and opportunities for possible sustainable recovery solutions with respect to the UN SDGs. We employed a qualitative research method through analytical literature reviews and in-depth interviews with 33 organizations. Our results reveal various pandemic effects, challenges and opportunities for cooperative regional sustainability development and recovery strategies, such as intra-trade strategy, green economy and public–private–people partnerships. The findings provide practical guidance on policy implications for transformative regional sustainability and innovative recovery strategies to achieve the sustainable development agendas (i.e., ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and UN 2030 Agenda). Overall, the paper contributes to advance our limited understanding in this realm and benefits diverse stakeholders toward our sustainable futures. Full article
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