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The chapter will focus on using a web survey administered using social networks as a gathering point to collect data on people's risk perception and their undertaking of protective behaviors during the Italian COVID-19 crisis. This was an unprecedented moment in the digital age when there was no possibility of physical contact due to the limitations imposed on coexistence by the health emergency to stem the spread of the virus. This is when digital connections are the only link among people, and the only tool that can be used for doing social research is trying to satisfy the desire for knowledge without limiting the potential for knowledge production even in times of profound uncertainty and several limitations. Analyzing the participants' feedback on web surveys during times of deep uncertainty allows the authors to show what is clearly happening to social research currently. The discussions will be supported by an auto-ethnography conducted on comments left by the respondents to the survey.

Public managers make decisions that may directly or indirectly affect the loss of human life, but there are few empirical analyses of whether and how public managers make tradeoffs among lives and other goods. We survey local government managers in the United States about tradeoffs using a vignette experiment with hypothetical flood scenarios. We find that managers make tradeoffs regarding lives saved compared with other features of the scenario, including project cost and property damage. Public works managers show a greater aversion to fatalities, while city managers and planners appear less averse. Our study also finds evidence of an equity preference.

Service and value co-production and co-creation in emergency services and emergency management Introduction This special issue explores the phenomenon of co-producing and co-creating services, policies and knowledge and the creation or destruction of value in the delivery of emergency services and more broadly in the research and practice of emergency management Examples of this shift can be seen in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s promotion of the “Whole Community” approach (FEMA, 2011) and the recently released “Building cultures of Preparedness” (FEMA, 2018) [ ]service users and policy recipients now have to be taken into account during the design stage of a service since “the delivery and management of services are no longer just the preserve of professionals and managers — users and other members of the community are playing a large role in shaping decisions and outcomes” (Boivard, 2007, p 846) According to this perspective co-production entails the conscious or unconscious participation of the user in the delivery of the service as well as the creation or destruction of value (Osborne et al , 2016) (2019) have demonstrated how public value can be produced and/or created at the level of the individual as well as at the collective level and that it can be produced or created at the same time as private value is being created [ ]public and private entities and citizens can create public and private value and may at times create both simultaneously

This paper was written to help advance convergence-oriented research in the hazards and disaster field. It highlights areas where additional research could contribute new knowledge to the response to and recovery from the pandemic and other disasters yet to come. Questions about the research topics and ethical and methodological issues highlighted here should be directed to the authors who contributed to this paper.

This article sought to raise the awareness of vulnerabilities in the maritime transportation systems sector and to ask those involved in security and emergency management to answer for themselves, “What are your acceptable risks?” In particular, the review alerts security and emergency managers to the Trojan horse risks that expose maritime organizations, including shippers, mariners, and port employees, to dangers from physical, personnel, and cyber security problems and from natural and man-made disasters, which may appear as Trojan horses. The article first discusses maritime threat actors, motives, tactics, and targets. Next, vulnerabilities of the maritime transportation systems sector that could be exploited by those seeking to conduct a Trojan horse attack are examined. Finally, a variety of security measures used to protect the maritime transportation systems sector from Trojan horse attacks are described. Advice to those in security and emergency management for maritime organizations on how to recognize, plan, and mitigate Trojan horse issues is provided.

This article contributes to the accountability studies literature by reporting on an attempt to operationalize a recursive concept of accountability grounded in Anthony Giddens’s theory of structur...

Vertical protective strategy (VPS) refers to activities intended to move people to a level of elevation above a (perceived) threat within the area at risk. VPS is an important but understudied approach to providing safety, particularly in the case of short warning events, such as tsunamis and coastal floods. While extensive engineering analyses have looked at the feasibility of VPS, the social, scientific and policy analyses associated with it have only been given cursory attention. This paper attempts to fill this gap by first briefly introducing VPS and then discussing the strategy in relation to shelter in-place and traditional horizontal evacuation. We then go on to highlight issues related to the adoption and implementation of VPS as a government sponsored activity. Last, we propose a research agenda that identifies areas to be further investigated.

Th e importance of leadership in emergency management is widely acknowledged (Demiroz & Kapucu, 2012; Kapucu & Van Wart, 2008; Rubin, 1985; Waugh & Streib, 2006). Popular culture reinforces this focus. It is common for mass media outlets (newspaper, television, cinema) to demand or portray charismatic leaders who “save the day” by simultaneously handling information, resources, and wild authority (Littlefi eld & Quenette, 2007). It is also common for real situations to be compared to these idealized images and for individuals to be hailed as heroes, as was the case for Rudy Giuliani after 9/11, or decried as villain, as was the case for both George W. Bush and Michael Brown after the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. But it is not enough to know leaders matter and make summary judgments. It is vitally important to understand how leadership in emergency management really works and the range of issues, considerations, and variables that aff ect leadership effi cacy. A systematic and thorough understanding of emer gency management leadership demands that we examine S Y M P O S I U M

This article examines public-private partnership in light of the New Public Management and New Public Governance, showing the effect of the overlap and mix of elements generated by these paradigms. For purposes of the article, PPP is defined as a unit of analysis of a network, with particular reference to processes of coproduction and cocreation. The study explores these ideal types in the strategic planning of several Italian cities, differentiating PPPs on the basis of degree of participant involvement, a distinction based on such explanatory variables as the structure of the decision-making process, legitimacy, transparency, and accountability. Broadly speaking, the article seeks to understand how relationships among public and private partners affect partnership sustainability. The analysis highlights the prevalence of PPPs oriented toward coproduction.