Disasters, Lessons Learned, and Fantasy Documents

Abstract

This article develops a general theory of why post-disaster 'lessons learned' documents are often 'fantasy documents'. The article describes the political and organizational barriers to effective learning from disasters, and builds on general theory building on learning from extreme events to explain this phenomenon. Fantasy documents are not generally about the 'real' causes and solutions to disasters; rather, they are generated to prove that some authoritative actor has 'done something' about a disaster. Because it is difficult to test whether learning happened after an extreme event, these post-disaster documents are generally ignored after they are published.

Research Engagement after Disasters: Research Coordination before, during, and after the 2011–2012 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, New Zealand

“…Driven by rapid developments after the disaster, this directive was the result of assumptions and swift decision-making concerning the distribution of tasks between the response operation and NHRP, the scope of NHRP function and responsibility, and participation in research activity into the disaster and its impacts. The directive is also important because it indexes the research pressure that Birkland and others have identified as a secondary effect of the high profile generated by major disasters (Birkland 2009, Rodriquez et al, 2007, Citraningtyas et al, 2010Brown & Donini, 2014;Gill et al, 2007). In addition to (scientific) risks to research quality, this pressure carries more immediate risks of particular concern to the response operation.…”

“…There were other instances in which local researchers, upon hearing of the NHRP, assumed this consortium was responsible for immediately acting to engage all local scientists interested in research after the disaster (many of these subsequently contributed to the research effort coordinated and funded by the NHRP). While opportunism is a factor in increased local research interest after disasters (Rodriguez et al, 2007, Birkland, 2009, the desire to contribute research skills and time to the response and to the local community is at least as significant a motivating factor. As well as marking another instance of perceived exclusion, then, the initial disappointment created by mismatched assumptions about the scope of the NHRP's role underlines the peculiar relevance research into a disaster event carries for those researchers living in the impacted region.…”

“…Birkland (1998) has established that the politicizing effect of US earthquake disasters has triggered increases in research funding and activity, greater likelihood of effective policy/science collaborations, and greater uptake of science by policymakers. Equally, however, the focusing effect of disasters has also been found to escalate research activity at the expense of scientific quality, when large volumes of often duplicative research are produced for largely opportunistic or political ends (Rodriguez et al, 2007;Black, 2003;Birkland 2009). The convergence of researchers into a disaster zone, moreover, has been identified as a significant additional burden on regions struggling to cope in the aftermath of disaster (Brown & Donini, 2014;Walton-Ellery & Rashid, 2012;Sumathipala et al, 2010;Brun, 2009;Gill et al, 2007;Sumathipala & Siribaddana, 2005).…”

Pressured to learn? Swedish police experiences of curbing organized crime

“…experimentation with new alternatives) may increase. Exploratory efforts in public bureaucracies have a corollary in notions of doubleloop learning (Argyris and Schön, 1996), or social policy learning (May, 1992;Birkland, 2006;2009). This type of organisational learning goes beyond adjustments in organisational programs and it is aimed at the core of the problem itself.…”

“…To please the surrounding and to a large extent politicised world, it may however suffice to pay lip service or to construct so-called fantasy documents that serve as temporary smoke-screens (cf. Birkland, 2009). It is in other words important to distinguish genuine from apparent manifestations of exploratory adaptation.…”