LIST OF WORKSHOPS

T05W21. Emergency Management, Disaster, and Policy

Policy Design

PANEL CHAIR(S)

G. YANNITELL REINHARDT

Main chair

A. ROSS

Second chair

R. DELEO

Third chair

CATEGORISATION

POLICY TOPIC

Policy Design

SECTOR

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KEYWORDS

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GENERAL OBJECTIVES, RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE

The Public Service Evaluation Unit of the Catalyst Project on Improving Community Services for Vulnerable People at the University of Essex seeks to co-host a workshop on Emergency Management, Disaster, and Policy during the upcoming Biennial Meeting of the International Public Policy Association in Pittsburgh, PA, on 26-28 June 2018. This proposed workshop builds on a series of panels on the public policy of risks, hazards, and disasters assembled for the 2018 Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association.

Objectives:

Far more than a contextual sidelight, the study of risks, hazards, and disasters has played an important role in advancing extant policy theory. Many of the most prominent theories of policy change underscore the capacity of disasters, focusing events, and other “exogenous shocks” to capture policy maker attention and induce policy change.[1] Research on the relationship between disasters and policymaking has been instrumental in not only advancing academic knowledge on the policy process, but also informing practitioner understanding of the ways in which social institutions organize and operate under conditions of extreme stress and uncertainty.[2]

The existence of a thriving community of scholars working at the intersection of disasters and public policy prompted the Policy Studies Organization (PSO) to launch a new journal dedicated to the study of disaster and public policy in 2010, Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy. Now in its eighth edition, RHCPP pays testament to this thriving sub-stream of research. Moreover, disaster scholars continue to disseminate their research in leading policy and administration journals.[3]

This workshop is designed to bring together the community of scholars working on disasters and public policy, and to develop submissions for up to four (4) journal special issues on disaster and emergency management policy and evaluation. It builds on a series of panels organized as a conference-within-in-a-conference (CWC) for the 2018 meeting of the Southern Political Science Association. The CWC has been designed to bring together more than 30 scholars from North America and around the world. The three-day discussion focuses on preliminary work that features cutting edge research on disasters and public policy. The strongest papers from this will be invited to participate in the proposed IPAA workshop. In addition, a call will be circulated to provide anyone who could not attend the SPSA meeting with a second opportunity to present their work.

We seek to expand on hazards governance and capitalize on growing scholarly attention to disasters, first responders, emergency management, and policy. We aim to showcase outstanding scholarship on emergency management, disasters, and policy, providing a venue for scholars to present their research, strengthen their network, and shape future hazards and disaster policy research across the social sciences via theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous empirical work. We hope this and subsequent conferences will motivate scholars of emergency management, hazards, and disaster policy to more fully engage the policy field by sharing theoretical insights and data and methods innovations that they have developed in the study of disasters.

Papers developed successfully as a result of the workshop will be invited to participate in special issues of relevant internationally ranked journals. Depending on demand, participation, and topical range, 1-4 special issues will be proposed, organized, and workshopped. We envision the following themes:

Disaster Policy in Comparative Perspective

- Field experiments testing disaster policy effectiveness in the international or comparative context;

- Disaster policies for preparedness, resilience, planning, and outcomes;

- Disaster mitigation and management policies across contexts;

- Social capital, networks, civil society organizations, and their influence on disaster resilience and policy outcomes across place and time.

Big Data, Methods, and Evaluation of Emergency/Disaster Policy

- Process evaluation and outcome/impact evaluation for first response units, disaster management, and relief agencies;

- Outcome/impact evaluation of disaster/emergency management planning processes and plans;

- The use of algorithms, machine learning, and big data to evaluate performance and impact of disaster policy.

Policy Process, Climate Change, and Public Understanding of Hazards

- Electoral outcomes, public opinion, and political behavior as a result of disasters, media coverage, and emergency events;

- Public perceptions of climate change, risk, and policy imperatives;

Policy Process Theories and Risk

- The dynamics of policy change in public risk and disaster domains;

- The role of focusing event, indicators, and other problem measures in drawing policymaker attention to public risks;

- Policy entrepreneurship and disaster policymaking.

We expect this workshop to have a mix of sessions. Some will be panel presentations of 4-6 papers per session, with a Chair and two Discussants per panel. Others will be in-depth sessions focusing on no more than 3 papers each, devoting more time to the discussion of each paper. Together these panels will help scholars at various stages of paper development. Graduate students and early-career scholars will be invited to attend and give comments (even if they do not have papers to present), so as to enrich the discussion and strengthen the community of up-and-coming disaster policy scholars.

[1] Kingdon, J. W. (2003). Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, 2nd Ed. New York:

Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers; Sabatier, P.A. and Weible, C. (2007). The advocacy coalition framework: innovations and clarifications. In P. Sabatier (ed.), Theories of the policy process (pp. 189-122). Boulder, CO: Westview, Press; Baumgartner, F.R., and Jones, B. D. (1993). Agendas and instability in American politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[2] May, P. (1991). Assessing public risks: federal earthquake policy design. Journal of policy analysis and management, 10(2): 263-285; Birkland, T. A. (1997). After disaster: agenda setting, public policy, and focusing events. Washington: Georgetown University Press; Birkland, T. A. (2006). Lessons of disaster: policy change after catastrophic events. Washington: Georgetown University Press; May, P.J. and Koski, K. (2013). Addressing public risks: Extreme events and critical infrastructures. Review of Policy Research, 30(2), 139-159; Nohrstedt, D. (2008). The politics of crisis policymaking: Chernobyl and Swedish nuclear energy policy. Policy Studies Journal, 36, 257-278.
[3] See, for example: Albright, E.A. (2011). Policy change and learning in response to extreme flood events in Hungary: an advocacy coalition approach. The policy studies journal, 39(3), 485-511; Avery, G. (2004). Bioterrorism, fear, and public health reform: Matching a policy

solution to the wrong window. Public administration review, 64(3), 275-288; May, P.J., Jochim, A.E., and Sapotichne, J. (2011) Constructing homeland security: An anemic policy regime. The Policy Studies Journal, 39(2), 285-307; Nohrstedt, D. (2009). Do advocacy coalitions matter? Crisis and change in Swedish nuclear energy policy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20, 309-333.

CALL FOR PAPERS

This workshop is designed to foster a community of scholars working on disasters and public policy, and to develop submissions for up to four (4) journal special issues on disaster and emergency management policy and evaluation. We seek to expand recent work on hazards governance and capitalize on growing scholarly attention to disasters, first responders, emergency management, and policy. We aim to showcase outstanding scholarship on emergency management, disasters, and policy, providing a venue for scholars to present their research, strengthen their network, and shape future hazards and disaster policy research across the social sciences via theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous empirical work. We hope this and subsequent conferences will motivate scholars of emergency management, hazards, and disaster policy to advance theoretical insights, work with generalizable theories, and use innovative and illuminating empirical methods and data.

We envision papers centered around (but not limited to) the following themes: