| 1. |
- Bodin, Örjan, et al.
(författare)
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Formation and performance of collaborative disaster management networks : Evidence from a Swedish wildfire response
- 2016
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Ingår i: Global Environmental Change. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-3780 .- 1872-9495. ; 41, s. 183-194
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Natural disasters present a multitude of entangled societal challenges beyond the realms and capacities of single actors. Prior research confirms that effective collaboration is of critical significance to address such complex collective action problems. Yet, studies rarely investigate if patterns of collaboration are appropriately aligned ('fit') with how different challenges (tasks) are interdependent, or how levels of fit influence collective action performance. We develop a set of hypotheses specifying what constitutes a good fit between collaborative networks and task interdependency. Using unique empirical data from the response to a major wildfire in Sweden, we examine how individual actors select collaboration partners and tasks during the formation the collaborative crisis response network. Then we test if levels of fit in the established network influence performance. We show that patterns of actor and task interdependency influence the formation of collaborative networks and that a good fit seems to be associated with more effective collaboration. Our data even suggest that a good fit is more important for performance than actors' prior crisis management experience and level of professionalization. Further, we show that actors only partially engage in actor-task configurations conducive to high performance. Our study probes the limitations of simplified accounts of collaborative disaster management by enabling more precise and theoretically informed empirical inquiries regarding the mechanisms that shape the structure and performance of collaborative networks.
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| 2. |
- Bodin, Örjan, et al.
(författare)
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Improving network approaches to the study of complex social–ecological interdependencies
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature Sustainability. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2398-9629. ; 2:7, s. 551-559
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Achieving effective, sustainable environmental governance requires a better understanding of the causes and consequences of the complex patterns of interdependencies connecting people and ecosystems within and across scales. Network approaches for conceptualizing and analysing these interdependencies offer one promising solution. Here, we present two advances we argue are needed to further this area of research: (i) a typology of causal assumptions explicating the causal aims of any given network-centric study of social–ecological interdependencies; (ii) unifying research design considerations that facilitate conceptualizing exactly what is interdependent, through what types of relationships and in relation to what kinds of environmental problems. The latter builds on the appreciation that many environmental problems draw from a set of core challenges that re-occur across contexts. We demonstrate how these advances combine into a comparative heuristic that facilitates leveraging case-specific findings of social–ecological interdependencies to generalizable, yet context-sensitive, theories based on explicit assumptions of causal relationships.
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| 3. |
- Bodin, Örjan, et al.
(författare)
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Working at the "speed of trust" : pre-existing and emerging social ties in wildfire responder networks in Sweden and Canada
- 2019
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Ingår i: Regional Environmental Change. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1436-3798 .- 1436-378X. ; 19:8, s. 2353-2364
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The frequency and severity of natural hazards are predicted to increase with climate change. Collaboration among actors across scales and organizational boundaries is essential to address this escalation. Pre-existing social networks are generally considered a catalyst enabling actors to more quickly address collective action problems. However, empirically derived knowledge about if, how, and why pre-established social networks facilitate effective collaborations in addressing natural hazards is scarce. We use survey data from crisis responders of large-scale wildfires in Sweden and Canada to investigate factors that shape actors’ (i) ability and willingness to form new social ties with other actors and (ii) propensity to “activate” pre-existing social ties. Our results show that many new social ties were established in both events, but also that pre-existing ties comprised a considerable proportion (54–82%) of all ties in use. Using exponential random graph models for temporal networks, we demonstrate that two actors that are working with or have previously worked with a common third actor are more likely to activate pre-existing social ties. Further, new social ties tend to be formed around a few central actors, whereas the opposite seems to apply for the activation of pre-existing ties. The extent to which actors consider others’ organizational affiliation, formal role, previous experience, and level of professionalization differs between the cases. We suggest these tie formation and activation differences can be attributed to diverging organizational contexts varying in their reliance upon self-organizing versus command-and-control approaches.
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| 4. |
- Bondesson, Sara, 1981-
(författare)
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Vulnerability and Power : Social Justice Organizing in Rockaway, New York City, after Hurricane Sandy
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a study about disasters, vulnerability and power. With regards to social justice organizing a particular research problem guides the work, specifically that emancipatory projects are often initiated and steered by privileged actors who do not belong to the marginalized communities they wish to strengthen, yet the work is based on the belief that empowerment requires self-organizing from within. Through an ethnographic field study of social justice organizing in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in Rockaway, New York City, the thesis explores whether and how vulnerable groups were empowered within the Occupy Sandy network. It is a process study that traces outside activists attempts at empowering storm-affected residents over time, from the immediate relief phase to long-term organizing in the recovery phase. The activists aimed to put to practice three organizing ideals: inclusion, flexibility and horizontality, based on a belief that doing so would enhance empowerment. The analysis demonstrates that collaboration functioned better in the relief phase than in the long-term recovery phase. The same organizing ideals that seem to have created an empowering milieu for storm-affected residents in the relief phase became troublesome when relief turned to long-term recovery. The relief phase saw storm-affected people step up and take on leadership roles, whereas empowerment in the recovery phase was conditional on alignment with outside activists’ agendas. Internal tensions, conflicts and resistance from residents toward the outside organizers marked the recovery phase. It seems that length of collaborative projects is not the only factor for developing trust but so is complexity. The more complex the activities over which partners are to collaborate the less easy it is. Based on this we could further theorize that the more complex the work is the more challenging it is for privileged groups to give away control. The internal struggles of the organization partially explain the failures to influence an urban planning process that the organization attempted to impact, which connects the micro-processes with broader change processes toward transformation of vulnerability.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Di Baldassarre, Giuliano, et al.
(författare)
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An integrative research framework to unravel the interplay of natural hazards and vulnerabilities
- 2018
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Ingår i: Earth's Future. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2328-4277. ; 6:3, s. 305-310
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate change, globalization, urbanization, social isolation, and increased interconnectednessbetween physical, human, and technological systems pose major challenges to disaster risk reduction(DRR). Subsequently, economic losses caused by natural hazards are increasing in many regions of theworld, despite scientific progress, persistent policy action, and international cooperation. We argue thatthese dramatic figures call for novel scientific approaches and new types of data collection to integratethe two main approaches that still dominate the science underpinning DRR: the hazard paradigm and thevulnerability paradigm. Building from these two approaches, here we propose a research framework thatspecifies the scope of enquiry, concepts, and general relations among phenomena. We then discuss theessential steps to advance systematic empirical research and evidence-based DRR policy action.
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| 7. |
- Hedlund, Johanna
(författare)
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No environmental problem is an island : Aligning networks of transboundary collaboration to complex policy issue interdependencies
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In recent times, societal and environmental problems have been exhibiting a growing interconnectedness and interdependency. Based on the idea of institutional fit, interdependency on a problem level should be preferably matched with governance arrangements for effective problem-solving. Still, we know little about the governance of consequential interdependencies across societal and environmental problems. Moreover, knowledge on how the governance of such interdependencies can be effective is even more limited. In governance contexts, actors break down societal and environmental problems into specific policy issues. When actors engage in policy issues that exhibit interdependency with other policy issues, such as resource extraction and environmental protection, they must seek governance arrangements that go beyond framings of single policy issues as detached from others. Transboundary, collaborative forms of governance are often undertaken by actors as a response to interdependencies between policy issues. This combination of interdependencies and transboundary dimensions consolidates high complexity. Despite extensive literature on collaboration as a governance form and a growing body of research on interdependency between policy issues, few studies integrate these to inform research on the effectiveness of such complex governance systems, where both perspectives are combined. Nor do such studies provide empirical evidence of why the effects of transboundary arrangements for governing interdependencies matter. Without such knowledge, transboundary collaboration can therefore occur without acknowledging which policy issues are interdependent, and in what way. This poses a risk of hampering its effectiveness to solve given policy issues, pertaining to a societal or environmental problem. On that account, this PhD thesis will investigate policy issue interdependencies in the transboundary collaborative governance of the Norrström water basin, situated in the Mideast of Sweden with its outlet in Stockholm. This is a novel approach to understand a key feature of environmental problems that makes them difficult to effectively address, and to further investigate the potential of collaborative governance as way to succeed in such endeavour. This licentiate thesis addresses this current research gap with the two following papers. Paper I introduces a methodological procedure for identifying and measuring interdependencies between policy issues based on their common, causal relationships. It thereby contributes to advancing the description of policy issues as an indicator of actors’ decision-making and governance effectiveness. Paper II places the policy issue interdependency networks developed in Paper I in relation to governance networks using a multilevel network approach. It analyzes the impact of policy issue interdependencies as exogenous drivers of collaborative governance, providing insights about the evolution of complex governance systems. With these papers, this thesis aims at a concretization and application of interdependent structures at the policy issue level and actor level respectively. It thereby meets an objective highlighted by previous research by integrating interdependent policy issues and collaborative governance, contributing to the study of complex governance systems through its formation, development and effectiveness.
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| 8. |
- Hermansson, Helena, 1980-
(författare)
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Centralized Disaster Management Collaboration in Turkey
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Following unprecedented earthquakes in 1999, highly centralized Turkey initiated reforms that aimed to improve disaster management collaboration and to empower local authorities. In 2011, two earthquakes hit the country anew affecting the city of Van and town of Erciş in Turkey’s southeast.In attempts to reduce disaster risk, global disaster risk reduction frameworks and disaster scholars and practitioners advocate collaborative and decentralized disaster management strategies. This thesis investigates how such strategies are received in a centralized and hierarchical national political-administrative system that largely is the anti-thesis of the prescribed solutions. More specifically, this research investigates the barriers and prerequisites for disaster management collaboration between both public and civil society actors in Turkey (during preparedness, response, and recovery) as well as how Turkey’s political-administrative system affects disaster management collaboration and its outcomes. The challenges to decentralization of disaster management are also investigated.Based on forty-four interviews with actors ranging from national to village level and NGOs, the findings suggest that the political-administrative system can alter the relative importance, validity, and applicability of previously established enabling or constraining conditions for collaboration. This may in turn challenge previous theoretical assumptions regarding collaboration.By adopting a mode of collaboration that fit the wider political-administrative system, collaborative disaster management progress was achieved in Turkey’s national level activities. Although there were exceptions, collaboration spanning sectors and/or administrative levels were generally less forthcoming, partly due to the disjoint character of the political-administrative system. Political divergence between local and central actors made central-local collaboration difficult but these barriers were partly trumped by other prerequisites enabling collaboration like interdependence and pre-existing relations. The findings suggest that the specific attributes of disasters may both help and hinder disaster management collaboration. Such collaboration generally improved disaster response. The findings also indicate that the decentralization attempts may have been premature as the conditions for ensuring a functional decentralization of disaster management are presently lacking. Decentralization attempts are commonly suggested to increase local capacity and local participation but the findings of this dissertation suggest that in Turkey, these commodities may currently have better chances of being increased by refraining from decentralization.
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| 9. |
- Koivisto, Jenni, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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A policymaking perspective on disaster risk reduction in Mozambique
- 2017
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Ingår i: Environmental hazards. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1464-2867 .- 1878-5697 .- 1747-7891 .- 1878-0059. ; 3, s. 210-227
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Academics and practitioners alike emphasise that public policy plays a key role to support efforts to reduce disaster risks and to buffer the impacts of natural hazards when they occur. This involves developing public policies to promote disaster risk reduction (DRR). However, the public policy dimension has only recently begun to receive attention in empirical research on DRR. Processes of policy change are discussed, yet less often studied, and more empirical research is needed to advance the understanding of the conditions for DRR policy change. Combining insights from adaptation research and public policy theory, this study investigates the long-term development of DRR policy in Mozambique as perceived by multiple stakeholders. The study identifies barriers and enabling factors influencing the DRR policy process over time. Using data from 37 semi-structured interviews, the study finds six main enabling factors supporting DRR policy change. Among the most important enabling factors are past disasters and broad stakeholder involvement. The study also unveils several barriers to DRR policy change, including resource insufficiency and lack of coordination among stakeholders. The study concludes with suggestions for integrating DRR and policy process research and lessons for policymaking in support of DRR over time.
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| 10. |
- Koivisto, Jenni, 1980-
(författare)
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Navigating in the Midst of Uncertainties : Challenges in Disaster Risk Governance in Mozambique
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Disasters cause heavy losses for societies and may quickly erode any development efforts. Consequently, disaster risk reduction (DRR) is an integral part of development work that should be addressed at multiple levels. Global DRR frameworks, scholars and practitioners all advocate disaster risk governance (DRG) strategies that are multi-stakeholder, polycentric and multisectoral. While various substantive knowledge gaps and questions arising from multiple risks and the crosscutting nature of DRR have been relatively well addressed, uncertainties relating to multiple DRR actors operating and collaborating at different scales have gained less attention in previous studies.This thesis investigates the uncertainties in DRG in Mozambique, a low-income country that regularly faces natural hazards. These hazards often cause heavy loss of life and livelihoods and economic damage. The four articles that together constitute this thesis focus on different sets of uncertainties and factors that have constrained or allowed Mozambique to take major steps in this policy area. By exploring strategic and institutional uncertainties related to stakeholder involvement, coordination and policy disputes, this thesis reveals different challenges and opportunities that affect DRR policymaking in Mozambique.This thesis concludes that Mozambique has managed to take important steps in DRR. However, as a consequence of the different challenges to DRR practice in Mozambique, policymaking can be short-sighted and makes slow progress, thus increasing the disconnect between theory, policies and practice. This thesis thus argues that DRG research and practice need to better take into account power-relations; coordination and capacity issues; and responsibilities and transparency across scales, both in Mozambique and elsewhere.
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