Hiding in plain sight: Vulnerability, public administration, and the case of Covid‐19 hotel quarantine

Abstract

I examine how failures surrounding a quarantine detention program for returned travellers from overseas brought a deadly second wave of the Covid‐19 virus into existence in Victoria, Australia. In addition to providing insights into the ways in which public administration organizations (PAO) can plan for and respond to wicked problems, I propose that they can learn to manage latent failures and equivocal circumstances before, during, and after such crisis events. This is important as locally and globally PAO face emergencies, crises, and disasters triggered by natural and non‐natural hazards which remind us that we need to find new ways of learning while living in challenging times.

Abstract

This article examines the ways that public administration can bring accidents into existence when seeking to address wicked problems such as managing the transmission of the Covid‐19 virus.