Chaos Organization and Disaster Management

ISBN-13: 9780824747152 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 336 str.

Alan Kirschenbaum

Opis

Focusing on a national field study of the Israeli experience at the time of the Gulf War, this reference analyses the definitions of preparedness, evaluations of risk, and set social structures that negatively impact formal disaster organization efficacy. In addition, it demonstrates the fundamental flaws of disaster management agencies by inspecting disasters from the perspective of potential victims and proposes an innovative model of disaster management centering on privatization.

Chaos Organization and Disaster Management offers a scholarly survey of disaster response behavior and management in the face of natural and manmade catastrophe. The author provides a methodological and empirical platform from which to initiate a critical analysis of disaster management. Sparked by a unique field study of the Israeli experience during the Gulf War, this book demonstrates the massive divide between individual responses to disaster and the actual functioning of disaster management organizations. It exposes the fundamental flaws of disaster management agencies, analyzing disasters from the perspectives of both agencies and potential victims.

Formulating an alternative approach to disaster management that draws upon the advantages of privatization, this volume appraises methods of measuring disaster agency effectiveness, emphasizing the citizen vantage point and stakeholder evaluations. It outlines the intrinsic bureaucratic constraints that impede the efficacy of government agencies, and reveals the disconnect between organizational and victim perceptions of disaster.

By highlighting a new empirically based understanding of disaster behavior, the book recommends moving the focus of disaster management to a social process model that will save lives.

Recenzje

"an eye-opening analysis of disaster management, one that provides practical advice…his ideas will challenge even the most knowledgeable disaster-management practitioners…anyone who accepts the challenge will find this book to be both intellectually stimulating and practical."
-Security Management, July 2005

Spis treści

The official organizing of chaos. The other side - victims perspective. Alternative organizational forms.

O autorze

Kirschenbaum, Alan