Hyperlocal Organizing

Jack L. Harris is visiting assistant professor of communication and summer internship director at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

• Table of ContentsDedicationAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Perpetual Disaster Response and Recovery: the New Normal?Chapter 1: Communicating and Organizing after Disaster Chapter 2: How Public Policy Shapes the Organizational Landscape of Disaster RecoveryChapter 3: Writing Community Back into Disaster Recovery: Hyperlocal Organizing and Interorganizational RelationshipsChapter 4: Using Stakeholder Theory to Build Theories of Hyperlocal Organizing Chapter 5: Hyperlocal Organizing after Hurricane Sandy: The View from Coastal New Jersey and Staten Island New YorkChapter 6: Empowering Community through Hyperlocal Organizing: Implications for Social Resilience and Democratic GovernanceAppendix AAppendix BReferencesAbout the Author

After a disaster strikes, what happens once the rescue helicopters and cameras go away? In Hyperlocal Organizing, Harris offers an answer that is part cautionary tale and part template for academics and communities. Using research on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and drawing on examples from other disasters (e.g., September 11 and Hurricanes Katrina, Maria, and Harvey), Harris examines the overlooked details when “response morphs into recovery.” In his analysis, the picture that emerges is how the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the Red Cross, and other established organizations come like bureaucratic hurricanes into affected communities. Generally, “top tier” organizations—though with some exceptions—have historically overlooked spontaneous volunteers, grassroots recovery efforts, and local organizations. The heart and soul of this book is the notion that recovery from crisis and disaster takes place at the grassroots, neighborhood, and community levels. As the United States and other countries continue to experience frequent, intense weather disasters, this book should serve as a guide on how to better integrate the top-tier responders more effectively with grassroots organizations, and also how to prepare communities for the most common scenarios they will face after the cameras leave: isolation and abandonment. Recommended. All readership levels.