Does Reform Change Coordination? A Comparative Network Analysis of Two Earthquake Responses in China’s Tibetan Plateau

• In Event: Institutional Dynamics in Policy: Convergence, Coordination, and Governance Under Complexity

Abstract

Nations worldwide have reorganized emergency management functions through institutional reforms, yet whether such formal changes translate into substantive improvements in actual coordination practice remains poorly understood. This gap persists partly because the field has focused on network characteristics at single points in time, lacking longitudinal perspectives that can reveal whether and how coordination structures evolve following reform. This study addresses this question by developing a comparative framework grounded in institutional theory's distinction between formal structure and organizational practice and an information processing perspective on emergency coordination. The framework identifies three dimensions along which reform-related transformation may be assessed: network clustering reflecting system-level multiparty coordination capacity, local authority positioning as coordination hubs that integrate local situational knowledge with external resources, and civil-military integration bridging organizational boundaries under catastrophic conditions. Each dimension corresponds to a distinct facet of how the emergency coordination system acquires, circulates, and acts on situational information.

We apply this framework through comparative network analysis of China's 2010 Yushu earthquake and 2025 Dingri earthquake responses. Both events occurred in geographically similar Tibetan Plateau settings characterized by extreme altitude, sparse infrastructure, and harsh climatic conditions, providing a most-similar-systems design that holds environmental context broadly comparable while allowing temporal variation. The fifteen-year interval encompasses major institutional developments including the 2018 emergency management reforms that consolidated previously fragmented disaster functions into dedicated departments, accumulated operational experience from numerous disaster responses, and the Theater Command reforms enhancing regional civil-military coordination mechanisms.

Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) with data from 714 organizations and 826 coordination ties in the Yushu response and 1,366 organizations and 2,222 ties in Dingri, we find substantial transformation across all three dimensions. First, structural clustering increased markedly, indicating that multiparty coordination arrangements where organizations share common partners became far more prevalent. Second, local authority organizations shifted from peripheral to central network positions: coordination in the Yushu response flowed primarily through national ministries despite formal territorial management arrangements, whereas in the Dingri response, regional and county governments served as genuine coordination hubs. This shift illustrates how formal responsibility can remain decoupled from coordination practice until sustained investment in dedicated departments, professional expertise, and interorganizational relationships builds the capacity to enact it. Third, military organizations demonstrated greater integration with civilian coordination networks, with reduced insularity and expanded cross-sector ties, suggesting that institutional mechanisms including Theater Command structures and provincial military liaison arrangements have begun to bridge the civil-military organizational boundary.

These findings reveal a coherent pattern of network transformation: from a hub-and-spoke architecture centered on national ministries with sparse clustering and insular military coordination, to a more distributed, locally anchored, and cross-sectorally integrated coordination system. The study contributes to emergency management scholarship by demonstrating the value of coordination network structures as diagnostic indicators of reform implementation, and by providing empirical evidence that formal reforms require sustained organizational development—not merely formal reorganization—before becoming coupled with effective coordination practice.

Author

• Wu Chen, Nanjing University
  Presenting Author