Closing the field. Boundary construction in the field of disaster response as preservation strategy
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Sandra Pfister
University of Linz Austria
sandra.pfister@jku.at
Author(s):
Unaffiliated responders have become subject of vivid debates. Despite they are considered a valuable resource in the response to disasters, as they undertake critical disaster response activities such as S&R, and bring in plentiful skills, they are still rarely integrated into official disaster operations and their relationship to the disaster expert organizations is rather conflictual. A well-known strand of argument suggests that this is motivated by persistent disaster myths that inform disaster experts understandings about civilians, leaving underexamined the conflictual context, in which these understandings unfold. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the persistent exclusion of unaffiliated responders. It suggests to apply a Bourdieusian perspective that takes the disaster response as conflictual space of practices, where field actors compete for the power to determine a disaster and its appropriate solution. Invading actors put a specific jeopardy on the established order in the field and the domain legitimacy of established actors. Consequently, the construction of field boundaries become a powerful strategy of established actors to exclude competing actors and perspectives. Hence, to defend their position and to preserve their power in the field. The paper examines in greater detail, how these boundaries are erected. To do so, it conducts a case study of a mudslide disaster in the Austrian Alps. Three strands of strategies can be distinguished, which established actors apply to erect boundaries: symbolic boundary construction (narratives become a powerful device for building invisible walls against external actors), boundary defense (invading actors are prevented from field entrance), and involvement (paradoxically, field boundaries are preserved through a more active or reactionist involvement of actors).
Community response to crises and disasters: From preparedness to practices