HOW DO PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES BEHAVE IN AN INFRASTRUCTURE FAILURE?
THE FOLLOWING PROVIDES A BRIEF GUIDE TO EXPECTED INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY BEHAVIOUR IN INFRASTRUCTURE FAILURE
SOURCE: Preston,J., Chadderton,C., Kitigawa,K. and Edmonds,C. (2015, forthcoming) Community learning in disasters: an ecological learning framework, International Journal of Lifelong Education.
HOW DO PEOPLE BEHAVE IN AN INFRASTRUCTURE FAILURE?
•Mutual aid
•Community learning
•Information sharing
•Little looting BUT some ‘borrowing’, almost always replaced after event
•Little social unrest BUT depends upon prevailing political environment
•Social justice concerns become paramount
•if there is a catastrophic failure then there will be political blame
Communities will behave in their own interests in a self sufficient manner but there are three distinct forms of community behaviour:-
a.Navigation – dealing with incidents as they occur, some well established community activity (Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake)
b.Organisation – learning to work together in new circumstances, extensive community activity (Christchurch Earthquake)
c.Revolt – new forms of community activity breaking with traditional disaster recovery mechanisms (Hurricane Sandy)
Navigation involves what is called 'small loop' learning where small steps are taken and the current paradigm of community disaster response is in play. Organisation, and particularly revolt, use what is called 'large loop' learning where new paradigms of community disaster response are in play.
WHAT DETERMINES THE FORM OF COMMUNITY BEHAVIOUR?
The form of community behaviour (a, b or c) is dependent upon whether small or large loop learning predominates and is dependent on the following factors:-
SMALL LOOP LEARNING PREDOMINATES WHEN…
- Populations are in a state of shock, anxiety or distress
- There are institutional or power structures which prevent more radical forms of organisation.
- There is a long historical time period between disasters.
- The disaster causes little disturbance to existing social relations.
- Coercive power structures are successful in an attempt to impose existing paradigms of disaster response.
LARGE LOOP LEARNING PREDOMINATES WHEN…
- A new civic, or voluntary organisation appears to fill a power vacuum
- Communities are drawing on a pre-existing paradigm (e.g. memory of the response to a previous disaster – an existing ‘large loop’ of how things should be organised)
- The social conditions are so disrupted that a new paradigm of community learning emerges (note that this is not inevitable even if the conditions are extremely difficult)
The greater the number of small loop factors, the more likely community behaviour is to be navigation, the greater the number of large loop factors, the more likely community behaviour is to be organisation or revolt.