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Crisis Communication in Dark Times: The 2011 Mouse River Flood in Minot, North Dakota
Title
Crisis Communication in Dark Times: The 2011 Mouse River Flood in Minot, North Dakota.
Creator
Christopher L. Atkinson
Abstract/Description
Crisis communication is an essential aspect of disaster and crisis management for governments; this is particularly true for local governments, which are first into an event response and last out, and on the front lines of response and recovery. In this article, crisis communication is reviewed generally and then in the context of the 2011 Souris (Mouse) River flood in Minot, North Dakota. Using analysis of primary interview data, I deliberate on the potential that exists for public...
Show moreCrisis communication is an essential aspect of disaster and crisis management for governments; this is particularly true for local governments, which are first into an event response and last out, and on the front lines of response and recovery. In this article, crisis communication is reviewed generally and then in the context of the 2011 Souris (Mouse) River flood in Minot, North Dakota. Using analysis of primary interview data, I deliberate on the potential that exists for public communication to enhance the responsiveness of government in addressing the public’s needs under threat of hazard or disaster. Results and discussion of the analysis are provided. I find that the city learned from the challenges of the flood in a way that suggests improved responses for future events. The case represents an expression of good governance in what have been dark times for the public sector.
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Date Issued
2014
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FAUIR000473
Format
Document (PDF)
A Shepherd for the Naïve: Images of Future Government in Huxley, Bradbury, and Forster
Title
A Shepherd for the Naïve: Images of Future Government in Huxley, Bradbury, and Forster.
Creator
Christopher L. Atkinson
Abstract/Description
Intellectuals of the 20th century bore witness to society’s injustices. They viewed and commented on erosion of rights and humankind’s callousness to itself. For example, Huxley’s Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited illustrate with contempt a society that had renounced personal individuality and rejected freedom, choosing a drugged totalitarian state set adrift from any sense of morality. Huxley’s work is a familiar touchstone, in that it presupposed a world that seems increasingly...
Show moreIntellectuals of the 20th century bore witness to society’s injustices. They viewed and commented on erosion of rights and humankind’s callousness to itself. For example, Huxley’s Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited illustrate with contempt a society that had renounced personal individuality and rejected freedom, choosing a drugged totalitarian state set adrift from any sense of morality. Huxley’s work is a familiar touchstone, in that it presupposed a world that seems increasingly real to us, even though a faithful portrayal of the future was hardly Huxley’s intent. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 soberly reminded the world of the wages of intolerance to divergent ideas, in envisioning a government solidifying its hold on power by banishing the spectrum of human emotion in literature and mass media. Forster’s ambitious short story “The Machine Stops” countered the naiveté of a positive equal utopia, with a world cruel in its homogenization and dependent on a deified machine for all facets of its existence. In each instance, government is an ominous, questionable character. Technology, in these texts and in today’s world, is a foundational element with muddled aims—a rich virtual society on one hand, but frightening levels of assimilation, control, and loss of interpersonal communication and privacy in the crumbling arena of the real on the other. In this article, a future technology-led existence is examined through the lenses of these fictional works.
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Date Issued
2015
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FAUIR000497
Format
Document (PDF)
evaluation of the impact of local government institutions on business resilience in disaster
Title
An evaluation of the impact of local government institutions on business resilience in disaster.
Creator
Atkinson, Christopher L., College for Design and Social Inquiry, School of Public Administration
Abstract/Description
This dissertation explores how local government policies affect pre-and postdisaster business resilience, in the context of institutional and neo-institutional frameworks. The study builds on past research on business vulnerability and resilience to examine government policies in the pre-disaster and response and recovery periods, and explore how government responses of varying types can contribute to different outcomes for local small businesses in the recovery period following hurricane...
Show moreThis dissertation explores how local government policies affect pre-and postdisaster business resilience, in the context of institutional and neo-institutional frameworks. The study builds on past research on business vulnerability and resilience to examine government policies in the pre-disaster and response and recovery periods, and explore how government responses of varying types can contribute to different outcomes for local small businesses in the recovery period following hurricane disasters. The project examines two cases surrounding events in 2005 and their impact on business resilience: Hurricane Katrina and its effects on the New Orleans metropolitan area; and Palm Beach County's experience with Hurricane Wilma. The dissertation involves a mixed-method approach to the subject matter. The statistical analysis portion uses multiple regression analysis of surveys of government-registered business owners in the affected areas. Business resilience is examined in light of the p redictive power of the size of the disaster; the influence of the institutional policies in public procurement, and vii economic development through small business programs; the role of institutional culture; and finally business vulnerability. The interview portion involves interviews with public officials, and coding and analysis of the field texts of these discussions, for additional information about the role that institutions play in the resilience of businesses before and after disaster. The statistical results suggest that institutional culture; size of disaster, institutional policies (particularly in procurement practices), and vulnerability can play a role in determining the resilience of a local business community., The statistical analysis is supported by interview data, which suggest that public institutions can create a culture of resilience in the business communities they serve, through support of proactive measures that make businesses less vulnerable, and creation and maintenance of supportive networks in the business community through public-private channels. Such approaches, combined with forward-thinking policy toward economic development as a general imperative, can create business communities that are more resilient in the face of disaster.
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Date Issued
2011
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3174502
Subject Headings
Business cycles, Emergency management, Government policy, Small business, Planning, Disaster relief, Government policy
Format
Document (PDF)