ORGANIZING, ROLE ENACTMENT, AND DISASTER: A STRUCTURAL THEORY

The research summarized here builds directly on an earlier volume by Gary A. Kreps, Social Structure and Disaster (University of Delaware Press, 1989). In this second book, Kreps and Susan Bosworth - and their colleagues - construct from the archives of the Disaster Research Center a formal theory of role enactment and organizing during the emergency period of disaster. Their work has been guided by Ralph Turner's critique of an earlier study by Bosworth and Kreps and, more important, Turner's own theorizing about role systems.
A summary of the strengths and limitations of the archives for theory building, Turner's critique of the earlier study - and an extensive response to that critique - can be found in chapters 1-3 of the book. A precise conception and measurement of role enactment and organizing are then detailed in chapters 4 and 5. Three core dimensions of role are captured empirically as organizing unfolds: role allocation, role complementarity, and role differentiation. Role allocation refers to stability or change in the assumption of post-disaster roles; role complementarity means stability or change in linkages among post-disaster roles; and role differentiation is the stability or change in the performance of post-disaster roles. Organizing is represented by a structural code having four elements: domains (D), tasks (T), human and material resources (R), and activities (A). The code is used to empirically record differences between formal organizing and collective behavior as the most immediate structural setting within which role enactment occurs.
The three dimensions of role and a composite measure of role enactment are modeled in chapter 6 for 257 role incumbents in 106 organized responses. Model findings suggest that the stability or change of role enactment is influenced directly by such factors as the severity of disaster events; the structural form, type, and timing of organizing; role experience, disaster experience, and formal disaster preparedness; the complexity and timing of role enactment; and the characteristics of role incumbents. The final chapter presents a formalization of the theory that uses Robert Dubin's theory-building strategy. A proposed expansion of the theory shows how Turner's explanatory principles of role (functionality and tenability) can be specified as outcomes of role enactment and organizing.
In the closing pages of the book, the authors write: "When all is said and done, crisis events are intriguing and obviously important social phenomena. Because social structure cannot be taken for granted in such situations, its origin, transformation, and demise can often be observed quite vividly." The research relating to such observation - as compared with the more subtle processes of everyday affairs - is most vividly set forth in the present volume.