Seminar series From the bottom up Frontline crisis management and informal policy change in international organisations Add to calendar 2025-01-28 16:00 2025-01-28 17:30 Europe/Rome From the bottom up Sala Triaria Villa Schifanoia YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Jan 28 2025 16:00 - 17:30 CET Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia Organised by Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies the Robert Schuman Centre Seminar Series Join Nele Kortendiek, Max Weber Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre, as she presents her latest research. During this event, Max Weber Fellow Nele Kortendiek will address critical gaps in the literature on crisis-driven policy change in international organisations. While existing studies focus on elite decision-making and institutional resilience, the role of frontline crisis managers remains under-explored in International Relations. Using the European migration and refugee crisis as a case study and drawing on insights from organisation studies and the sociology of the professions, this presentation introduces a novel theoretical framework that foregrounds improvisation by first responders in the field and the ex-post stabilisation of their spontaneous policy solutions at headquarters. In addition to reconstructing and illustrating the mechanisms that link frontline action to changed policies, the research identifies theoretical conditions shaping the likelihood and direction of informal policy change from the ground up.