Facilitating endemic resilience: Bridging disconnections between the public and organizations in disaster risk contexts

Background: This paper analyzes ‘official' and ‘unofficial' narratives of earthquake preparedness at a southern California university to: 1) reveal larger values inherent within disaster preparedness as it is currently practiced, 2) identify disconnections between organizational and public/community actors in an area at-risk for a major earthquake, and 3) suggest ways institutional approaches to disaster preparedness can be improved. Methods: Data collection methods consisted of in-depth interviews among managerial staff and students, participant-observation of preparedness activities, and analysis of archival documents. I engaged in 100 hours of observation, 40 interviews, and analysis of over 500 pages of materials. The methodological frame for the study was grounded theory, with a separate narrative analysis to uncover major themes in the data. Outcomes: I analyze connections between the notion of personal responsibility and the need to engage in preparedness actions as prescribed by authority figures and experts. Public inaction reflects negative personal qualities such as apathy and hostile resistance to authority. However, this research shows the public does not act to prepare for other reasons, such as trust in infrastructure continuity. There are also major disconnections in trust and knowledge sharing between the two sets of participants that contribute to issues with preparedness efforts on campus. Conclusions: I outline an alternative approach to disaster preparedness as a collaborative effort, capitalizing on aspects of ‘endemic' resilience inherent within both sets of actors. These findings have important implications for how disaster preparedness efforts in other risk contexts are approached in the future.