The Role for State Governments in Community Resilience

Investigators:

Project Details

Abstract:

Survey of state officials in all 50 states to gauge the role of state government in the resilient community-building process, exploring state practices, reasons for state practice, and perceived effectiveness of states in helping their local communities. Development of the survey instrument for this study was informed by work by Pfefferbaum and her research team on the components of resilient communities.

Primary Findings:

We find substantial evidence that individual state's responses to the events of September 11 were shaped by path dependent processes. The revised organization of homeland security institutions in the states was substantially influenced by prior institutional arrangements for disaster planning and emergency management. We were not successful in identifying patterns in "lessons learned" from emergency management and disaster response reports.

Methodology:

We surveyed all 50 states, using reviews of web materials and follow-up communications in some cases for an eight year period. We also conducted on-site interviews in two states with key agency personnel. We reviewed "lessons learned" documents from several jurisdictions.

Timeframe

Project Period:
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