Networked Forms of Organizing, Disaster, and Public Health

• In Event: Organizing for Health

Abstract

In post-disaster contexts, public health can be broadly defined by the ability for the affected community to return and rebuild, which involves getting businesses, agencies, schools, organizations – the employers and providers of services – back and functioning. Driving mechanisms that help rebuilding efforts are that these organizations communicate, coordinate, and manage their individual return in the context of other organizations’ returns. In post-disaster circumstances, rebuilding the vitality of the community is an interdependent effort where a state of flux necessitates networks of organizations to mobilize. Although the return of a community might involve bureaucracies (e.g., local governments), the collective efforts involve more informal, networked forms of organizing. Using cases from post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans and post-Superstorm Sandy New Jersey, this presentation explains networked forms of organizing and how individual actions and communication by organizations within a broader network of other organizations (e.g., collaborators, suppliers, clients, and service providers) support community-level rebuilding.

Author

• Marya L. Doerfel, Rutgers U