Disaster resilience as a complex problem: Why linearity is not applicable for long-term recovery

Abstract The paper proposes that a reason why long-term disaster initiatives fail is the adoption of a linear, complicated problem based approach rather than seeing recovery as a complex system. The argument is that initial post-disaster responses are complicated with a subsequent transition to a complex problem. Transition is proffered as a missing link between short-term responses (rescue and relief) and long-term disaster recovery. Case data from Japan and Christchurch suggests that three system elements influencing potential transition are: the actors and their purpose; new forms of social capital and a move to greater co-production with community. Influencing these effectively will support enhanced traction to achieve the move to long-term recovery.

[1]  Jamshid Gharajedaghi,et al.  Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity - A Platform for Designing Business Architecture , 1999 .

[2]  H. Nakanishi,et al.  Integrating Tourism into Disaster Recovery Management , 2014 .

[3]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[4]  Caroline Sapriel.  Effective crisis management: Tools and best practice for the new millennium , 2003 .

[5]  Daniel P. Aldrich,et al.  Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery , 2012 .

[6]  Sofie Pilemalm,et al.  A framework for new actors in emergency response systems , 2013, ISCRAM.

[7]  B. Head.  Wicked Problems in Public Policy , 2008 .

[8]  John W. Creswell,et al.  Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches , 2010 .

[9]  Gyöngyi Kovács,et al.  Relief Supply Chain Management for Disasters: Humanitarian, Aid and Emergency Logistics , 2012 .

[10]  Len Fisher,et al.  Disaster responses: More than 70 ways to show resilience , 2015, Nature.

[11]  Alessandra Cozzolino.  Humanitarian Logistics: Cross-Sector Cooperation in Disaster Relief Management , 2012 .

[12]  Cassidy Johnson,et al.  Rebuilding after disasters: From emergency to sustainability , 2009 .

[13]  Mark Dunn,et al.  Coordination in complex systems: increasing efficiency in disaster mitigation and response , 2004 .

[14]  Michel Bruneau,et al.  A Framework to Quantitatively Assess and Enhance the Seismic Resilience of Communities , 2003 .

[15]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[16]  Janine O'Flynn,et al.  Rethinking Public Service Delivery , 2012 .

[17]  M. Woolcock.  Social capital and economic development: Toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework , 1998 .

[18]  P. '. Hart,et al.  Crisis Leadership of the Bush Presidency : advisory Capacity and Presidential Performance in the Acute Stages of the 9/11 and Katrina Crises , 2009 .

[19]  R. Shaw,et al.  Social Capital: A Missing Link to Disaster Recovery , 2004, International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters.

[20]  Kevin J. Dooley,et al.  A Complex Adaptive Systems Model of Organization Change , 1997 .

[21]  Robert E. Stake,et al.  Multiple Case Study Analysis , 2005 .

[22]  Roberto Poli,et al.  A Note on the Difference Between Complicated and Complex Social Systems , 2013 .

[23]  John W. Meyer,et al.  The “Actors” of Modern Society: The Cultural Construction of Social Agency* , 2000 .

[24]  Eliot H. Rich,et al.  Learning before the storm: Modeling multiple stakeholder activities in support of crisis management, a practical case , 2013 .

[25]  L. Henderson,et al.  Emergency and Disaster: Pervasive Risk and Public Bureaucracy in Developing Nations , 2004 .

[26]  John McCloskey,et al.  Social dimensions of science-humanitarian collaboration: lessons from Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia. , 2014, Disasters.

[27]  Kent Grayson,et al.  The Intersecting Roles of Consumer and Producer: A Critical Perspective on Co-production, Co-creation and Prosumption , 2008 .

[28]  P. Adler,et al.  Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept , 2002 .

[29]  Lawrence J. Vale.  The Resilient City , 2007 .

[30]  B. Ritchie.  Chaos, crises and disasters: a strategic approach to crisis management in the tourism industry , 2004 .

[31]  Gérard P. Cachon,et al.  Perspective: Complexity Theory and Organization Science , 1999, Organization Science.

[32]  U. Beck.  WORLD AT RISK , 2008 .

[33]  P. Berke,et al.  Recovery after disaster: achieving sustainable development, mitigation and equity. , 1993, Disasters.

[34]  Brenda Murphy,et al.  Locating social capital in resilient community-level emergency management , 2007 .

[35]  E. Ostrom,et al.  CONSUMERS AS COPRODUCERS OF PUBLIC SERVICES: SOME ECONOMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS , 1981 .

[36]  Syed Ainuddin,et al.  Institutional framework, key stakeholders and community preparedness for earthquake induced disaster management in Balochistan , 2012 .

[37]  Mary B. Lalone.  Neighbors Helping Neighbors , 2012 .

[38]  A. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. , 1992 .

[39]  R. Hawkins,et al.  Bonding, Bridging and Linking: How Social Capital Operated in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina , 2010 .

[40]  Ann Dale,et al.  Social Capital: A Necessary and Sufficient Condition for Sustainable Community Development? , 2010 .

[41]  David J. Silverman,et al.  Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook , 1999 .

[42]  Mary Uhl-Bien,et al.  Exploring social constructions of followership: A qualitative study , 2010 .

[43]  Nancy G. Leveson,et al.  Applying systems thinking to analyze and learn from events , 2010 .

[44]  Expertise and policy-making in disaster risk reduction , 2015 .

[45]  Patrick L. Schultz,et al.  Storytelling, time, and evolution: The role of strategic leadership in complex adaptive systems ☆ , 2007 .

[46]  Emily L. Chamlee-Wright,et al.  Social Capital as Collective Narratives and Post-Disaster Community Recovery , 2011 .

[47]  Tanya Menon,et al.  Culturally Conferred Conceptions of Agency: A Key to Social Perception of Persons, Groups, and Other Actors , 2001 .

[48]  Christina Goulding,et al.  Grounded theory, ethnography and phenomenology: A comparative analysis of three qualitative strategies for marketing research , 2005 .

[49]  Robert D. Putnam,et al.  Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community , 2000, CSCW '00.

[50]  W. Adger.  Social and ecological resilience: are they related? , 2000 .

[51]  John Black,et al.  Disaster resilience in transportation: Japan earthquake and tsunami 2011 , 2014 .

[52]  L. Aharonson-Daniel,et al.  The conjoint community resiliency assessment measure as a baseline for profiling and predicting community resilience for emergencies , 2013 .

[53]  Daniel J. Brass.  Being in the right place: A structural analysis of individual influence in an organization. , 1984 .

[54]  Russell R. Dynes,et al.  Community Social Capital as the Primary Basis for Resilience , 2005 .

[55]  Siambabala Bernard Manyena,et al.  The concept of resilience revisited. , 2006, Disasters.

[56]  R. Kemp,et al.  Transition management as a model for managing processes of co-evolution towards sustainable development , 2007 .

[57]  A. Portes.  Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology , 1998 .

[58]  Eric K Van Beurden,et al.  Making sense in a complex landscape: how the Cynefin Framework from Complex Adaptive Systems Theory can inform health promotion practice. , 2013, Health promotion international.

[59]  R. Shaw,et al.  Managing and bridging communities in temporary housing: case of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Kesennuma City, Japan , 2015, Natural Hazards.

[60]  J. Reid,et al.  Case of the month. A double whammy! , 1998, The British journal of radiology.

[61]  M. Patton,et al.  Qualitative evaluation and research methods , 1992 .

[62]  L. Pearce.  Disaster Management and Community Planning, and Public Participation: How to Achieve Sustainable Hazard Mitigation , 2003 .

[63]  I Christoplos,et al.  Re-framing risk: the changing context of disaster mitigation and preparedness. , 2001, Disasters.

[64]  Daniel P Aldrich,et al.  Social, not physical, infrastructure: the critical role of civil society after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. , 2012, Disasters.

[65]  Cathy Wilkinson,et al.  Social-ecological resilience: Insights and issues for planning theory , 2012 .

[66]  E. Blakely.  My Storm: Managing the Recovery of New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina , 2011 .