Handbook of Critical Incident Analysis by Schwester Richard W.;

Author:Schwester, Richard W.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1900130
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Sociopolitical Organization

Research on how communities are affected in disasters has been a topic of discussion since early 1900s. For the first half of the twentieth century, disasters were associated with the phenomena of social disorganization—a view that was refuted in a spate of studies conducted in the 1950s and 1960s. Fritz (1961) and Baker and Chapman (1962) found that the incidence of rampant looting, hysterical behavior, and panic-led action following disasters was actually atypical. Fritz claimed the observable breakdown of coordination and control was found to arise from the informal, spontaneous “convergent actions” of persons living outside the disaster areas, rather than the victim population. Disaster-related convergence, therefore, referred to the collective behavior involving the mass movement of people, goods, and other resources into disaster-stricken areas, and a “convergence theory” was proposed to account for this altruistic response and the collective behavior (Tierney 2001). Convergence was seen as both beneficial and problematic, because it brought much-needed volunteers and resources to disaster-stricken areas while also creating substantial management challenges (Tierney 2001). The convergence theory also acted as the foundation for the concept of “therapeutic communities,” in which “information about the needs of community members is widely shared; there is rapid consensus on actions to be taken to meet those needs, and highly motivated work for common purposes. These behavior patterns persist until the more urgent needs are met” (Barton 1969, 207). Dynes (1970) attempted to resolve the paradox of disorganization and convergence by presenting them as dual aspects of a larger restructuring process during which, first, there is disintegration of activities and social groups from which eventually new patterns of interaction emerge.

More recently, however, researchers have begun to question whether the postdisaster communities are indeed as integrative as previously portrayed. Abrams et al. (2004) point out that the previously studied aspects of convergence ignore questions of culture, community, and sense-making, except as they are relevant to the question of managing victimized populations. In their study on post-9/11 New York, they argue that local residents actively created, negotiated, and contested the meaning of “community” in the city after the disaster. According to them, this negotiation “was rooted in uncertainty about identity, interaction, and the boundaries of community in the wake of the attacks” which begs the question of whether postdisaster community “restructuring” is experienced by all its residents in the same manner (Abrams et al. 2004, 189). Tierney also points out that, in the long term, the events of September 11, 2001, exposed differential vulnerabilities and community fault lines in New York society and gave rise to “competing and often conflicting disaster framing processes” (2001, 3). The recovery period after damaging disasters is often marked by conflicts over the recovery process—for example, debates over whether a disaster-stricken community should be restored consistent with predisaster development patterns or rebuilt in ways consistent with new community visions (Tierney 2001). Albright notes that despite the recognition of a common disadvantage by disaster victims and their reliance on one another, inequalities exist in the manner in

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