The political economy of community disaster management assets: A case study of the farm community in Sussex County, Delaware

This study intended to advance research on community disaster management assets and contribute to the current policy development of FEMA's Whole Community concept by investigating those internal and external factors, which are responsible for the activation of community disaster management resources. By example of an ethnographic case study of one community group, namely the farm community in Sussex County, Delaware, a conceptual framework was developed with two distinct components: (1) a community-internal micro filter consisting of a credibility and capacity test; and (2) a macro filter that examined government and other exogenous influences, which encourage or inhibit the activation of resources. Four major themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) the role of different types of community capital, which highlighted human, social and political capital as bonding and bridging capitals for the Sussex County farm community; (2) a divergent understanding of the political economy of disaster management assets by the institutionalized emergency management system and the local community as a major challenge to engage the community; (3) the distinctiveness of community disaster management assets as opposed to other types of community assets, particularly with regard to the expeditiousness of supply of resources critical in disaster management; and (4) the effective use of disaster management resources, which questions the long-term sustainability of an intervention. The latter suggested integrating a third component of a sustainability assessment into the conceptual framework to analyze the long-term effects of the exchange of demand and supply of activated resources. Recommendations include, among others, the integration of the various planning processes at the county level, notably comprehensive and disaster planning, in order to establish a common understanding of needs, resources, and longer-term goals among the various community groups; a focus on the levers in the micro and macro filters as possible entry points for community engagement; and a suggestion for individuals and organizations interested in strengthening community disaster management assets to use the proposed conceptual framework to develop and examine community-appropriate interventions.