Browsing by Author "Kendra, James M."
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Item Considering Convergence, Coordination, and Social Capital in Disasters(Disaster Research Center, 2004) Wachtendorf, Tricia; Kendra, James M.Following the 2001 World Trade Center disaster, New York City experienced high levels of individual and organizational convergence: volunteers and groups wanting to assist in the response. Since that time, several initiatives across the U.S. have developed to encourage volunteer disaster response integration. Before 9/11, other formal and informal volunteer organizations had worked toward similar goals, and community-based disaster mitigation was touted as a valuable approach in both Canada and the U.S. Drawing upon examples from research conducted after the 2001 World Trade Center disaster response in New York City as well as research on community based mitigation and response programs, this presentation outlines important considerations when planning for volunteer and community wide participation in disaster reduction and response strategies. Findings point to the value of incorporating community-based groups in disaster related issues and decision making, as well as recognizing the social capital, resources, and expertise these groups bring to the table. This presentation also stresses the need to balance the real considerations and challenges that accompany public integration. Establishing and maintaining partnerships, incorporating groups not traditionally involved in disaster response or mitigation decision-making, setting boundaries, credentialing, familiarizing volunteers with existing response systems, and leveraging initiatives to maximize mitigation opportunities are some of the issues discussed.Item Creativity in Emergency Response After The World Trade Center Attack(Disaster Research Center, 2002) Kendra, James M.; Wachtendorf, TriciaThis paper discusses the role of creativity in mounting an emergency response, using the World Trade Center attack as an exploraiory case study. The paper observes that the exercise of creativity by emergency managers is the source of positive adaptive responses to unexpected or rapidy-changing situations. The paper notes however that creativity, because of its different manifestations, can introduce a random, unpredictable element into the response milieu, varying with the magnitude of the event, and can lead to tensions within an organization that vary with the timeframe over which decisions must be made. Volunteers and others who converge to a disaster site also exhibit creativity in the pursuit of their objectives, which can present both benefits and challenges to emergency managers. Nevertheless, creativity will remain an important component in initiating and sustaining emergent methods and organizational networks that researchers recognize as important- in emergency response. The paper suggests that plans and exercises should include a dimension that considers creativity.Item Elements of Community Resilence in The World Trade Center Attack(Disaster Research Center, 2001) Kendra, James M.; Wachtendorf, TriciaIn this paper, we examine the elements of resilience exhibited by New York City departments as they responded to the World Trade Center attack in September, 2001 while at the same time losing their primary emergency operations center (EOC) facility at 7 World Trade Center. Our focus lies primarily on the reestablishment of the EOC in the days that followed its destruction. Data were gathered during exploratory fieldwork commencing within two days of the attack and continuing for two months thereafter. We base the results on over 750 collective hours of systematically observing key planning meetings and highly secured facilities, including the EOC, incident command posts, supply and food staging areas, and the disaster site also known as 'ground zero'. The data and findings we present in this paper are preliminary; however, they offer initial insight into understanding organizational and community resilience in disaster situations and therefore warrant our consideration. The paper begins by presenting conceptions of resilience as understood from several disciplinary perspectives, noting that work in these disciplines has sought to understand how a natural or social system that experiences disturbance either sustains its functional processes or fails to do so. Although researchers differ in the terms they use to describe different features of organizational resilience, they nevertheless orient their analyses around such features as redundancy, resourcefulness, communication and the capacity for self-organization in the face of extreme demands.Item The Indian Ocean Tsunami: A Preliminary Assessment of Societal Impacts and Consequences(Disaster Research Center, 2005) Rodriguez, Havidan; Wachtendorf, Tricia; Kendra, James M.; Trainor, JosephItem Rebel Food ... Renegade Supplies : Convergence After The World Trade Center Attack(Disaster Research Center, 2001) Kendra, James M.; Wachtendorf, TriciaThe World Trade Center attack, though constituting an unprecedented disaster, nevertheless generated many of the features seen in other disasters in the U.S. Such features include the convergence of volunteers and donations of supplies, which are well documented in the literature. Their appearance typically is problematic, since they both introduce needed resources and present additional management challenges for public officials already occupied with their emergency duties. This paper builds on existing theories of disaster-related collective behavior by examining convergence following the World Trade Center attack. It focuses on the proliferation of volunteers and donated supplies, and identifies a form of convergence not discussed by other researchers: that of supporters or fans. Relying on data gathered in over 750 collective hours of field observations and on documentary sources, the paper argues that the multifaceted aspect of the event-disaster, battlefield, and crime scene-and ambiguity about the extent of any continuing threat complicated the often (but not inevitably) problematic aspects of convergence in the response milieu.Item A Regulationist Approach To The Occupational Status Of Navigation Officers In The U.S. Merchant Marine(Disaster Research Center, 2001) Kendra, James M.Regulation theorists are concerned with the economic manifestations of social factors such as attitudes and norms that at first appear to be unrelated to economic activity. These forces interact to influence the fortunes of industries and regions. While typically the regulationist approach is applied to place-specific processes of change, the perspective can also profitably be applied to industries that are not place-specific. Using merchant shipping as an illustrative case, the paper begins with a broad overview of regulationist principles and then applies them specifically to technological and organizational changes that are occurring in the marine workplace. It then discusses the role of merchant officers in that industry and the effects of technological change on the organization and character of their work. The paper will show how the regulationist approach evokes a richer theoretical understanding of change in the workplace and, in so doing, will expand understanding of the mode of social regulation.