Our world is replete with crises. The landmarks of the new millennium bear the names of unprecedented adversity: 9/11, the Madrid and London bombings, the Boxing Day Tsunami, SARS and avian flu, to name only a few. Crises are threats against the core values or life-sustaining functions of a social system and require urgent and immediate remedial action. Crises are ′inconceivable threats come true′.Governments and organizations must be prepared to meet these threats. They cannot afford to ignore crisis management requisites or deal with them in a superfluous, mostly symbolic fashion. This major work maps effective crisis management starting with an introductory essay by the editor explaining the reasoning behind the selection, defining key concepts and introducing the key themes around which the major work is organized. The collection is arranged in three parts, each dealing with a specific theme: Part One: Causes and DynamicsPart Two: Challenges of Crisis ManagementPart Three: Consequences of Crises and Crisis Management.
Arjen Boin is the director of the Stephenson Disaster Management Institute at Louisiana State University. He has published widely on such topics as leadership, prisons, crisis management and institutional design. His most recent books include Managing Crises: Threats, Dilemmas, Opportunities (Charles C Thomas Publisher), The Politics of Crisis Management and Governing after Crisis (both Cambridge University Press).
PART 1: CAUSES AND DYNAMICSFrom Industrial Society to Risk Society: Questions of survival, social structure and ecological enlightenment - Ulrich BeckExistential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Scenarios - Nick BostromGlobalizing an Agenda for Contingencies and Crisis Management: An editorial statement - Uriel Rosenthal and Alexander KouzminThe Contribution of Latent Human Failures to the Breakdown of Complex Systems - James ReasonThe Organizational and Interorganizational Development of Disasters - Barry A. TurnerThe ′Logic′ of Organizational Irrationality - Paul R. SchulmanA Strawman Speaks Up: Comments on The limits of safety - Todd R. La PorteComplexity, Tight-coupling and Reliability: Connecting normal accidents theory and high reliability theory - Jos A. RijpmaThe Trickle-down Effect: Policy decisions, risky work and the Challenger tragedy - Diane VaughanThe Vulnerable System: An analysis of the Tenerife air disaster - Karl E. WeickThe Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster - Karl E. WeickChaos in the Underground: Spontaneous collapse in a tightly-coupled system - Paul EllisUnderstanding Prison Riots: Towards a threshold theory - Arjen Boin and William A.R. RattrayFrom "Normal Incidents" to Political Crises: Understanding the selective politicization of policy failures - Annika Brändström and Sanneke KuipersThe Future is not the Past Repeated: Projecting disasters in the 21st century from present trends - Enrico QuarantelliEmergent Groups in Established Frameworks: Ottawa Carleton′s response to the 1998 ice Disaster - Joseph ScanlonRethinking Security: Organizational fragility in extreme events - Louise K. ComfortUnderstanding the French 2003 Heat Wave Experience: Beyond the heat, a multi-layered challenge - Patrick LagadecPART TWO: CHALLENGES OF CRISIS MANAGEMENTTen Research Derived Principles of Disaster Planning - Enrico L. QuarantelliTowards the Development of a Standard in Emergency Planning - David AlexanderPreparedness for Emergency Response: Guidelines for the emergency planning process - Ronald W. Perry and Michael K. LindellReframing Crisis Management - Christine M. Pearson and Judith A. ClairTowards a Systemic Crisis Management Strategy: Learning from the best examples in the US, Canada and France - Thierry Pauchant, Ian I. Mitroff and Patrick LagadecDisaster Crisis Management: A summary of research findings - Enrico L. QuarantelliWorking in Practice but not in Theory: Theoretical challenges of "High Reliability Organizations" - Todd R. LaPorte and Paula M. ConsoliniState Behavior in International Crisis: A model - Michael BrecherCrisis Simulations: Exploring tomorrow′s vulnerabilities and threats - Arjen Boin, Celesta Kofman-Bos and Werner OverdijkBridging the two Cultures of Risk Analysis - Sheila JasanoffHomeland Security Warnings: Lessons learned and unlearned - Benigno E. AguirreBlindsided? September 11 and the origins of strategic surprise - Charles F. Parker and Eric K. SternGoverning by Looking Back: Historical analogies and crisis management - Annika Brändström, Fredrik Bynander and Paul ′t HartToxic Fear: The management of uncertainty in the wake of the Amsterdam air crash - Arjen Boin, Menno van Duin and Liesbet HeyseSome Consequences of Crisis which Limit the Viability of Organizations - Charles F. HermannCrisis Decision Making: The centralization thesis revisited - Paul ′t Hart, Uriel Rosenthal, and Alexander KouzminExperts and Decision Makers in Crisis Situations - Uriel Rosenthal and Paul ′t HartDesigns for Crisis Decision Units - Carolyne Smart and Ilan VertinksyIndicators of Stress in Policymakers During Foreign Policy Crises - Margaret G. HermannThe Nature and Conditions of Panic - Enrico L. QuarantelliOrganizational Adaptation to Crises: Mechanisms of coordination and structural change - Russell Dynes and Benigno E. AguirreThe Bureau-politics of Crisis Management - Uriel Rosenthal, Paul ′t Hart and Alexander KouzminContingent Coordination: Practical and theoretical puzzles for Homeland Security - Donald F. KettlPublic Leadership in Times of Crisis: Mission impossible? - Arjen Boin and Paul ′t HartFoot-and-mouth 2001: The politics of crisis management - Allan McConnell and Alastair StarkOrganizing for High Reliability: Processes of collective mindfulness - Karl E. Weick, Kathleen M. Sutcliffe and David ObstfeldElements of Resilience after the World Trade Center Disaster: Reconstituting New York City′s Emergency Operations Centre - James Kendra and Tricia Wachtendorf PART THREE: CONSEQUENCES OF CRISIS MANAGEMENTSymbols, Rituals and Power: The lost dimension in crisis management - Paul ′t HartOrganizational Learning Under Fire: Theory and practice - Kathleen M. Carley and John R. HarraldLearning Under Pressure: The effects of politicization on organizational learning in public bureaucracies - Sander Dekker and Dan HansénScapegoats, Villains, and Disasters - Thomas E. Drabek and Enrico L. QuarantelliToward a Politics of Disaster: Losses, values, agendas and blame - Richard Stuart OlsonThe Risk Game and the Blame Game - Christopher HoodOverview: Crisis management, influences, responses and evaluation - Allan McConnellEscalating in a Quagmire: The changing dynamics of the emergency management policy subsystem - Gary L. Wamsley and Aaron D. SchroederDisaster and the Sequence-pattern Concept of Social Change - Lowell Juilliard CarrOpening the Window for Reform: Mandaes, crises and extraordinary policymaking - John T.S. KeelerPolitical Responsibility for Bureaucratic Incompetence: tragedy at cave creek - Robert GregoryCrisis and Learning: A conceptual balance sheet - Eric SternHousing Issues after Disasters - Mary C. ComerioPsychosocial Care and Shelter Following the Bijlmermeer Air Disaster - Marceline B.R. Kroon and Werner I.E. OverdijkThe Emotional Effects of Disaster on Children: A review of the literature - L. Aptekar and J. Boore