Critical Issues in Disaster Science and Management: A Dialogue Between Researchers and Practitioners

The implementation of FEMA’s Whole Community initiative is an opportunity to engage the whole of societal capital in disaster management. While its policies are gradually being developed, questions are mounting about what implications this new strategy will have for the traditional intergovernmental management of disasters. Thus, as an emerging issue in disaster science and management, the following chapter examines what governance issues are likely to arise from the adoption of the Whole Community approach. To achieve this, an exchange between an academic and a practitioner provided unique perspectives, and a collaborative effort identified where there was agreement and where perspectives diverged. Any gaps between research and practice were addressed with ideas for the way forward. The academic segment reviewed the literature on key theoretical concepts, which define government’s legitimacy to engage in emergency management in the first place, identify boundaries of its mandate, and explain indicators that must be considered when evaluating a governance system. This section also reviewed the theory of governing by network, which from the initial policy documents appears to be the governance system preferred by the Whole Community. This was followed by a review of the findings of empirical research to date concerned with the intergovernmental relationship for emergency management and any issues of relevance for the Whole Community. The academic segment concluded that increasing delegation of responsibilities for disaster management to partners in a widespread network poses significant challenges for government. Moving toward a Whole Community of shared responsibilities by extending networks even further and maintaining network relationships for goods and services that are largely not contractbased and thus not enforceable, government will be increasingly challenged to fulfill its commitment of good governance in terms of displaying maximum predictability, transparency, and accountability. Clarifications are needed on concrete Whole Community policies to analyze these challenges further and for research to make contributions to the ongoing policy discussions. The practitioner segment begins by discussing how the language of this new approach has been woven into federal emergency management doctrine. The ability of this language to actually affect shared responsibility is analyzed based on past similar programs, given that this segment concludes that the Whole Community approach has delivered nothing actionable that achieves devolution. Critical to shared responsibility is not only the relationships with nontraditional response partners, which are already evident in most Critical Issues in Disaster Science and Management 9 | P a g e Chapter 2: Whole Community: Local, State, and Federal Relationships jurisdictions, but also in how the individual understands his/her role in emergency management. The past practice of federal government as the primary payer for disaster expenses has led to a sense of complacency on the part of states, localities, and individuals. Further, policy practices that sanction and subsidize individuals to live in high-risk areas do not send a message of urgency about their risk and do confuse other preparedness efforts. Thus, there is a mismatch between the feel-good language of Whole Community and the truth telling that must ensue about governmental limitations and risk. Surely if this effort does not go further than simply using the language of shared responsibility, there will be no measurable change to the current federal-centric approach. Critical Issues in Disaster Science and Management 10 | P a g e Chapter 2: Whole Community: Local, State, and Federal Relationships AN ACADEMIC’S PERSPECTIVE