Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding Organizational Anticipation and Response to Disaster Risks

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The purpose of this research is to improve our understanding of how organizations in metropolitan areas work together to identify, plan for, and respond to disaster risks. Previous research has focused on reactions to specific disaster events. This research shifts attention to an under-studied area, the everyday practice of professionals working in government to proactively anticipate disaster in a way that reduces the frequency and impact of these disruptive events. The research will focus on how disaster risk management expertise is developed, and how that expertise is deployed in times of stability and crisis within and across organizational boundaries. In sociology this project represents the first systematic empirical study of the daily work of disaster managers in a major metropolitan area. The analysis of interview and participant-observation data will provide critical links between the sociology of disaster and more general research on risk and expertise. This project collects and analyzes data from participant observation in a municipal emergency management agency in New York City as well as in-depth interviews with disaster risk management professionals in public service and the private sector. The participant observation phase of the data collection will involve shadowing Office of Emergency Management staff while they perform seven different tasks; network administration to maintain ties with other government organizations to coordinate disaster response; planning, which includes the writing of disaster preparedness plans and playbooks; the development and execution of tabletop exercises for disaster simulations; monitoring conditions during times of stability; public communication; training and education; and actual operations activity. These observations will be complemented by 75 in-depth interviews with disaster management practitioners, 60 from the New York City OEM network and 15 from outside of it. The purpose of these observations and interviews is to understand how risk management practitioners define risk, how expertise is defined in an area where knowledge changes rapidly and how multiple organizations interact (or not) to protect the citizenry from disasters of multiple kinds. In a period where disasters are becoming more frequent and their effects more severe, this project will contribute to our understanding of how disaster risk can be reduced. It also will be helpful as a source of best practices for emergency management practitioners currently working in government and private industry.