Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Published by De Gruyter

Volume 16 Issue 2

May 2019

Issue of Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

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Contents
Journal Overview

Opinion

Publicly Available May 15, 2019

Beyond ICS: How Should We Govern Complex Disasters in the United States?

Branda Nowell, Toddi Steelman

Article number: 20180067

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Abstract

The complexity of large-scale disasters requires governance structures that can integrate numerous responders quickly under often chaotic conditions. Complex disasters – by definition – span multiple jurisdictions and activate numerous response functions carried out by numerous legally autonomous public, nonprofit, and private actors. The command operating structure of the Incident Command System (ICS) is a hierarchical structure used to manage complex incidents. Increasingly, complex disasters are seen as networks of multiple actors. Improving our capacity to respond to large-scale, complex disasters requires moving beyond the “hierarchy versus networks” debate to understand the conditions under which governance structures can best serve disaster response goals. Understanding the capabilities and limitations of the governance structures embedded in our national policy tools and frameworks can enhance our ability to govern effectively in networked contexts. In this article, we suggest the need to shift focus to build greater capacity for hybrid and network governance approaches, including a more sophisticated understanding of the conditions under which these governance forms are most effective.

Research Articles

April 3, 2019

A resilience engineering approach to integrating human and socio-technical system capacities and processes for national infrastructure resilience

John E. Thomas, Daniel A. Eisenberg, Thomas P. Seager, Erik Fisher

Article number: 20170019

Abstract

Despite Federal directives calling for an integrated approach to strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure systems, little is known about the relationship between human behavior and infrastructure resilience. While it is well recognized that human response can either amplify or mitigate catastrophe, the role of human or psychological resilience when infrastructure systems are confronted with surprise remains an oversight in policy documents and resilience research. Existing research treats human resilience and technological resilience as separate capacities that may create stress conditions that act upon one another. There remains a knowledge gap regarding study of those attributes in each that build infrastructure resilience as an integrated system of humans and technologies. This work draws on concepts found in the resilience engineering and psychology literature to examine the dynamic relationships between human resilience and the resilience of complex, socio-technical critical infrastructure systems. We identify and organize 18 system capacities and 23 human capacities that influence infrastructure resilience. We then correlate individual human and system resilience capacities to determine how each influences four socio-technical processes for resilience: sensing, anticipating, adapting, and learning. Our analysis shows that the human and technical resilience capacities reviewed are interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent. Further, we find current literature is focused more on cognitive and behavioral dimensions of human resilience and we offer ways to better incorporate affective capacities. Together, we present a simple way to link the resilience of technological systems to the cognitive, behavioral, and affective dimensions of humans responsible for the system design, operation, and management.

January 26, 2019

Developing Degree Programs in Emergency Management: Ghana’s Experience

Mariama Yakubu, Jessica Jensen

Article number: 20180051

Abstract

Training or Educating Emergency Management practitioners and academics are crucial to disaster risk reduction. However, not much is known about higher education program development, specifically, degree program development in Emergency Management. This paper seeks to find factors that help and or hinder Emergency Management higher education program development. An interpretive constructionist perspective method was used to analyze data collected through purposive and snowball sampling. Nineteen emergency management scholars and practitioners who have been involved with Ghana’s efforts, and additional six faculty members who have been involved with developing other new degree programs in four Ghanaian universities were also selected through snowball sampling for the purposes of comparison. Data was collected through in-depth semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews. The results suggest six main factors explain why Ghana has not yet established an Emergency Management degree program. The factors include institutional support, partnership, advocacy, funding, program marketing, and cultural factors. In addition to laying theoretical foundation for studies in this area, the relative novelty of Disaster/Emergency Management degree programs, make findings of this study, a checklist for institutions looking into establishing Disaster or Emergency Management degree programs in future.

Book Review

March 27, 2019

James Bohland, Jack Harrald and Deborah Brosnan. The Disaster Resiliency Challenge: Transforming Theory to Action

Jacob Fast

Article number: 20190005

About this journal

About the Journal
Created in 2004, the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (JHSEM) is an online journal that publishes original, innovative, and timely articles describing and assessing research and practice in the fields of homeland security and emergency management. JHSEM publishes not only peer-reviewed articles but also opinion, news/communiqués, and book/media reviews. Its electronic format allows us to leverage communication technologies in order to accumulate and disseminate the latest knowledge on a broad range of related topics in a timely and inexpensive manner.

Mission
JHSEM promotes a comprehensive and dynamic perspective, providing readers with up-to-date information regarding the evolving nature of the homeland security and emergency management fields. Recognizing the inherent links between these two fields, the journal aims to serve as a bridge between them, encouraging exploration of their underlying relationships, interactions, and synergies.

JHSEM’s mission is propelled by the conviction that in fields that share significant operational elements, such as homeland security and emergency management, both researchers’ and practitioners’ insights are needed for success; in isolation, their perspectives can offer only partial views of the reality. Accordingly, JHSEM also aims to serve as a bridge between the researcher and practitioner communities, facilitating the kind of collaboration and coordination that enables them to appreciate and benefit from the associated implications and inherent connections in their fields. It is only from the intersection of these two perspectives and the interchange of ideas that the most compelling knowledge, novel insights, and best practices can emerge.

A critical part of JHSEM’s mission is to enrich the perspectives of researchers and practitioners in the homeland security and emergency management fields so that they are better able to address the increasingly complex issues before them. To this end, JHSEM encourages an interdisciplinary approach that reflects the expanding boundaries of these two disciplines by including such content as public health, cyber security, and environmental policy.

Among JHSEM’s key objectives are to

• Meet the need for peer-reviewed, high-quality, wide-ranging professional articles in the fields of homeland security and emergency management
• Augment the work of the existing professional societies and single-discipline publications in these fields
• Follow developments in the two fields and offer new information and analysis as they become available
• Serve the needs of both the academic and practitioner communities by providing a high-quality platform for information sharing, collaboration, and exchange of ideas in an efficient and economical way.