Browsing by Author "Greer, Alex"
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Item Household residential decision-making in the wake of disaster: cases from Hurricane Sandy(University of Delaware, 2015) Greer, AlexThis dissertation explores how households decide to relocate and resettle or rebuild in situ following a disaster. Recent disasters, catastrophes, and episodes of repeat losses have started a conversation regarding the efficacy and desirability of an "organized retreat" from hazardous zones. The disaster literature, however, has lagged in this area, and we do not have a broad understanding of relocation and resettlement, or post-disaster household decision-making. Most scholarship in this area only tangentially relates to longer-term residential decision-making, or merely offers "best practice" recommendations for managing resettlement efforts. This study uses case-study methodology to investigate household residential decision-making in two communities in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Using two-tailed sampling of extreme cases, this study examines Sea Bright, NJ, a community that is rebuilding in situ, and Oakwood, NY, a community that is relocating and ultimately resettling. ☐ I used a mixed methods approach to build the case studies, including a survey distributed to the entire study population, purposely-sampled semi-structured interviews with community members and policymakers, and a review of housing recovery policies. Findings from this exploratory study suggest pre-event functioning, attachment to place, risk perception, destruction of the built environment, incentives, the availability of buyouts, and post-event functioning influenced household decision-making process. Mixed evidence supports the role of perceptions of trustworthiness of officials and NGO support. Interestingly, I did not find support for variables other studies identified as important in the decision-making process, including household income, race, or dependents in the home. This study also adds nuance to the literature by parsing constructs into their components and exploring how they relate to the decision-making process. The results of this study provide a preliminary understanding of how households decide where they live after a disaster. In achieving this goal, this study offers policymakers unique insights on what households consider most important in this decision-making process. Through a detailed explanation of methods and any problems encountered, this project also serves as a model for replication to confirm or expand findings through future studies.Item Household Residential Decision-making in the Wake of Disaster: Report of Results Prepared for Oakwood Beach Residents(Disaster Research Center, 2015-07) McNeil, Sue; Trainor, Joseph; Greer, Alex; Mininger, KelseyThis report presents the findings of a questionnaire mailed to Oakwood Beach residents during the summer of 2014 focusing on housing damage, decisions, and repair following Hurricane Sandy. Researchers from the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware worked to complete this study. As researchers, we were interested in exploring the different elements that influenced how residents decided where to live after Sandy. Little research exists to help explain how households decide where to live after a disaster. Getting better information about how people here made and are making these decisions is important both for this community and for communities that will face these kinds of disaster in the future. We hope that this information will lead to better policies and programs that improve the disaster recovery process.Item Household Residential Decision-making in the Wake of Disaster: Report of Results Prepared for Sea Bright Residents(Disaster Research Center, 2015-07) McNeil, Sue; Trainor, Joseph; Greer, Alex; Mininger, KelseyThis report presents the findings of a questionnaire mailed to Sea Bright residents during the summer of 2014 focusing on housing damage, decisions, and repair following Hurricane Sandy. Researchers at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware worked together with the Borough of Sea Bright to complete this study. As researchers, we were interested in exploring both the condition of the housing stock and the different elements that influenced how Sea Brighters decided where to live after Sandy. Little research exists to help explain how households decide where to live after a disaster. Getting better information about how people here made and are making these decisions is important both for this community and for communities that will face these kinds of disaster in the future. We hope that this information will lead to better policies and programs that improve the disaster recovery process.Item Oil spill events : prominent frames and policy implications(University of Delaware, 2012) Greer, AlexThe purposes of this thesis are twofold; to gain insight through the lens of framing as to how the framing of a spill influences policy change and discern how competing frames affect policy. The second is to offer new recommendations to help bridge the safety gap the industry currently experiences, exposed by these three spills. For this study, three oil spills were chosen due to the considerable policy changes they invoked, the media attention they garnered, and their size; the Union Oil’s Platform A blowout in Santa Barbara, California of 1969, the wreck of the Exxon Valdez of 1989, and the Deepwater Horizon blowout of 2010. To address these questions, multiple data sources were used to gain an understanding on how key stakeholders framed oil spills and analyze the resulting policy. A conte nt analysis was performed for all three spills on scholarly articles, media articles, after action reports, court records, policy, and policy recommendations. This study also draws on in-depth interviews with key informants that were intimately involved in at least one of the three spills. The study findings suggest that framing does significantly affect the policy that results. In Union Oil's Platform A, the framing was overwhelmingly suggesting that the spill was an environmental and ecological tragedy wh ich could not happen again. The Exxon Valdez is essentially the story of three competing frameworks, eventually giving way to a regulatory framing of the event. The Deepwater Horizon also experienced three competing frames; there was a framing of the event as a slow-onset environmental catastrophe, which coincided with the framing that focused on the economic losses, and eventually the framing of the spill as failure in the regulatory structure. The implications of competing frameworks on policy in these sp ills are also discussed.