Talking about Hillsborough: ‘panic’ as discourse in survivors' accounts of the 1989 football stadium disaster

Popular representations of crowd behaviour in disasters are often characterised by irrationalist discourses, in particular ‘mass panic’ despite their rejection by current scientific research. This paper reports an analysis of four survivors' accounts of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster to investigate if and how they used the term ‘panic’. Reference to ‘panic’ occurred frequently, but more detailed analysis found that their accounts did not match the classic criteria for ‘mass panic’ (e.g. uncontrolled emotion and selfish behaviour). Indeed, participants referred to ‘orderly’ behaviour, and cooperation, even when they said the threat of death was present. ‘Panic’ was therefore being used as a description of events that was not consistent. A discourse analysis of usage suggests that participants used ‘panic’ not only to convey feelings of fear and distress but also to apportion culpability towards the actions of the police who they considered responsible for the tragedy (as indeed recent independent research has confirmed). It is concluded that the term ‘panic’ is so deeply embedded in popular discourse that people may use it even when they have reason to reject its irrationalist implications. Alternative discourses that emphasise collective resilience in disasters are suggested

Adapting to changes in volcanic behaviour: Formal and informal interactions for enhanced risk management at Tungurahua Volcano, Ecuador

This paper provides an example of how communities can adapt to extreme forms of environmental change and uncertainty over the longer term. We analyse the interactions between scientists, communities and risk managers and examine the interpretation and communication of uncertain scientific information during a long-lived volcanic eruption in Tungurahua, Ecuador. This is complemented with a detailed study of the eruptions of 2006 and 2014, which exemplifies the complexity of interactions during periods of heightened volcanic activity. Our study describes how a ‘shadow network’ has developed outside of, but in interaction with, the formal risk management institutions in Ecuador, improving decision-making in response to heightened volcanic activity. The findings suggest that the interactions have facilitated important adaptations in the scientific advisory response during eruptions (near-real-time interpretation of the volcanic hazards), in hazard communication, and in the evacuation processes. Improved communication between stakeholders and the establishment of thresholds for evacuations have created an effective voluntary evacuation system unique to Tungurahua, allowing people to continue to maintain their livelihoods during heightened volcanic activity and associated periods of uncertainty. Understanding how shadow networks act to minimise the negative consequences of volcanic activity provides valuable insights for increasing societal resilience to other types of hazards

Facilitating Collective Psychosocial Resilience in the Public in Emergencies: Twelve Recommendations Based on the Social Identity Approach

Accumulated evidence demonstrates the centrality of social psychology to the behavior of members of the public as immediate responders in emergencies. Such public behavior is a function of social psychological processes—in particular identities and norms. In addition, what the authorities and relevant professional groups assume about the social psychology of people in emergencies shapes policy and practice in preparedness, response, and recovery. These assumptions therefore have consequences for the public's ability to act as immediate responders. In this Policy and Practice Review, we will do three things. First, we will overview research on the behavior of survivors of emergencies and disasters, drawing out key factors known to explain the extent to which survivors cooperate in these events and contribute to safe collective outcomes. We will demonstrate the utility of the social identity approach as an overarching framework for explaining the major mechanisms of collective supportive behavior among survivors in emergencies. Second, we will critically review recent and current UK government agency guidance on emergency response, focusing particularly on what is stated about the role of survivors in emergencies and disasters. This review will suggest that the “community resilience” agenda has only been partly realized in practice, but that the social identity approach is progressing this. Third, we will derive from the research literature and from dialogue with groups involved in emergencies a set of 12 recommendations for both emergency managers and members of the public affected by emergencies and disasters. These focus on the crucial need to build shared identity and to communicate, and the connection between these two aims. Including our recommendations within emergency guidance and training will facilitate collective psychosocial resilience, which refers to the way a shared identity allows groups of survivors to express and expect solidarity and cohesion, and thereby to coordinate and draw upon collective sources of support. In sum, this evidence-base and the recommendations we derive from it will help professionals involved in emergency management to support public resilient behaviors and will help the public to develop and maintain their own capacity for such resilience

Editors' Introduction

Disasters have always captured human imagination. Throughout the Old Testament, the frequency with which disasters are used as central or as incidental themes suggests that they have always been familiar to man's experience and that they conveyed meanings beyond the significance of the events themselves. Even today, a close examination of the news media forces one to the conclusion that disasters continue to be "newsworthy." This special issue of the American Behavioral Scientist focuses on organizational and group behavior in disaster. The papers represent one attempt to deal with behavior in the crises event called disaster. They concern themselves with problems as old as man but ones which have had only sporadic and isolated social science attention

The Role Of Local Civil Defense In Disaster Planning

Intensive field studies involving over 300 in-depth interviews in 12 American cities were conducted in an effort to ascertain the conditions or factors associated with variations in the tasks, saliency and legitimacy of local civil defense organizations around the United States. All of the cities were objectively subject to at least two major natural disaster threats and half had undergone a major disaster in the last decade. Data were obtained from key community and emergency organization officials by way of a disaster probability rating scale, two intensive interview guides, and a general documentary checklist. Among the findings were the following. While overall disaster planning by civil defense has tended to be differentiated, segmented, isolated, cyclical and spasmodic , in recent years planning has broadened to include a wide range of disaster ,agents, a lesser focus on nuclear attack, more concern with local community viability and increasing involvement of a greater number of organizations in community disaster plans. Currently in almost all communities there are multiple layers of planning with little consensus on disaster tasks, on organizational responsibility and on the scope of disaster plannlng,is well as confusion concerning the role of civil defence in such planning. Local civil defence directors not only differ in following a professional or a political career path, but also manifest a variety of behavioral styles in carrying out their roles. Local civil defense agencies tend to be ambiguously viewed as to their interests, structures and functions by the general public, community influentials and organizational officials. Civil defense agencies have also evolved in two different ways -- some following a traditional path with an emphasis on nuclear hazards and others concerned with a number of different hazards. High saliency seems to be related to extensive horizontal relationships, broad scope of tasks and multiple hazard concerns. A number of factors undercut the legitimacy of civil defense organizations. These include changes in organizational purpose, preceived need for services, decline in resources, poor performance and changing saliency of the military model. Local offices which have legitimacy tend to be in localities where there are persistent threats, where civil defense is within the local governmental structure, where extensive relationships are maintained with other organizations, and where the output or product of the civil defense organization is seen as useful to other community groups. Conditions which are most likely to be productive of successful local civil defense involvement in disaster planning are that the loca1 organization develops experience in handling a variety of community emergencies, that municipal government provides a structure which accepts and legitimizes the civil defense function, that the local civil defense director has the ability to generate significant pre-disaster relationships among those organizations which do become involved in emergency activities, and that emergency-relevant resources, such as EOCs, be provided and that the knowledge of their availability is widespread throughout the community