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Floods, earthquakes, droughts, and other recurrent disasters around the globe have sparked renewed interest in whether and how disasters can be leveraged as turning points for transformation toward more sustainable and resilient societies. As the transformative potential of disasters increasingly gains prominence in different research fields, it is important to describe how different scientific approaches view the relationship. This article synthesises key insights from the policy sciences and public administration scholarship regarding the link between disruptive disaster events and policy activity aiming towards societal transformation. Key explanatory perspectives are discussed, including dynamics associated with institutional crisis, policy subsystems, agenda-setting and issue salience, governance capacity, policy-oriented learning and concentration of power, and situated in relation to four scenarios of potential disaster impacts on policymaking aiming at transformation. The results of this synthesis seek to enhance our understanding of when disasters may spark transformative change. Based on these findings, the article identifies priorities for future research into policymaking in the wake of disaster.

AbstractCollaborative forums involving multiple stakeholders responding to natural hazards are prevalent, yet there is little conclusive evidence of how stakeholders exchange information across such forums and how different patterns of information exchange influence forum goals. This study analyzes information exchange among representatives of 51 organizations across 50 collaborative forums in response to weather warnings in Sweden, 2011–15. Using coded transcripts from forum meetings, the study estimates exponential random graph models to document the prevalence of network configurations of organizations across these forums. The results show that actors avoid engaging in information exchanges within closed subgroups and that no specific type or organization was particularly active in exchanging information. The study suggests that the forum structures are consistent with short-term operational goals as well as the long-term objective of these forums to sustain collaboration over time. The study discusses potential explanations for these patterns and implications for forum performance in relation to natural hazards management.

Studies of how actors collaborate across organizational boundaries to prepare for and respond to extreme events have traditionally focused on describing network structure whereas fewer studies empirically investigate how network relationships influence crisis management capacities. Using survey data on crisis management work in Swedish municipalities, this study considers how the number of collaboration partners and venues for collaboration (networking) influence organizational goal attainment. Given managerial costs associated with increasingly complex collaboration networks, the study explores the diminishing returns hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between networking and goal attainment up to a certain point when payoffs do not increase. Results support a nonlinear relationship; networking at low levels had a positive effect on goal attainment whereas no relationship was found at moderate or high levels. To identify characteristics of collaboration conducive to performance, the study undertakes a comparative case study of two low-residual cases where the relationship between networking and performance follow the predicted nonlinear curve and one deviant case where high levels of networking had a positive effect on performance. The cases show that stable interpersonal relationships, clarification of the terms of collaboration, shared problem perceptions, and coordination of joint decision making constitute important assembly mechanisms for overcoming collective action problems.

Studies of how actors collaborate across organizational boundaries to prepare for and respond to extreme events have traditionally focused on describing network structure whereas fewer studies empirically investigate how network relationships influence crisis management capacities. Using survey data on crisis management work in Swedish municipalities, this study considers how the number of collaboration partners and venues for collaboration (networking) influence organizational goal attainment. Given managerial costs associated with increasingly complex collaboration networks, the study explores the diminishing returns hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between networking and goal attainment up to a certain point when payoffs do not increase. Results support a nonlinear relationship; networking at low levels had a positive effect on goal attainment whereas no relationship was found at moderate or high levels. To identify characteristics of collaboration conducive to performance, the study undertakes a comparative case study of two low-residual cases where the relationship between networking and performance follow the predicted nonlinear curve and one deviant case where high levels of networking had a positive effect on performance. The cases show that stable interpersonal relationships, clarification of the terms of collaboration, shared problem perceptions, and coordination of joint decision making constitute important assembly mechanisms for overcoming collective action problems.

Researchers as well as practitioners often elevate collaborative governance as a necessary condition for effective responses to extreme events. This research has a dominating focus on large-scale catastrophes and disasters, whereas little attention is devoted to less serious emergencies. Another void concerns performance measurement. Addressing these gaps, this study investigates plausible explanations for collaborative activity and outcomes in response to extreme winter conditions in Sweden. Analysis of a survey of Swedish public managers suggests that, in this case, collaborative action is associated with preparatory actions and disruptions affecting other organizations. The analysis generates conflicting findings regarding underlying explanations for collaborative outcomes.

Disruptive crises are generally conducive to policy conflict between multiple stakeholders. Following the potentially adversarial nature of crisis resolution, there is a need for theoretical approaches to advance the understanding of the political context in which such disputes evolve. This article explains how the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) can be applied as a theoretical basis for understanding the development and effects of policy conflicts in crisis resolution. Illustrating the ACF as a tool for descriptive policy analysis in this context, the article conducts a case study of the European response to the 2010 volcanic ash cloud crisis, focusing on the nature of the policy subsystem, the role of scientific information, competing crisis narratives, exploitation of resources and venues, and policy change. The concluding section identifies a set of theoretical implications and specifies how the framework can be used by practitioners to mitigate the effects of policy conflicts on crisis resolution.

In the last decade and across countries, changes in national intelligence policies have spurred widespread political opposition and public protest. Instances of intelligence policy change warrant close academic attention to cast light on the dynamics of policymaking in contested policy areas. In an effort to contribute to further development of a theory of policy change within the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), this article analyzes the adoption of legislation in Sweden to expand the mandate for signals intelligence gathering. Three explanatory variables are derived from the ACF to explain policy change in this case: shifts in advocacy coalition membership, distribution of coalition resources, and access to policy venues. Whereas shifts in coalition membership were unrelated to policy change in this case, the case‐study lends partial support to the role of resource distribution and policy venues. To promote the progress of an ACF theory of policy change, the study concludes by drawing two theoretical implications: (i) introducing hierarchical classification of coalition resources and (ii) identification of revised policy narratives and exploitative policy entrepreneurship as causal mechanisms linking external shocks to venue shifts and policy change.

This study applies the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to developments in Swedish nuclear energy policy in the 1970s and 80s. In an effort to contribute to the refinement and debate regarding the generalizability of ACF theory, the objective is to assess the utility of ACF assumptions when applied in this case. The study explores hypotheses about advocacy coalition stability and examines the motivations explaining policy change in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Utilizing different sources of data, the study confirms patterns of coalition stability and shows that interests and political learning were important in explaining policy change in this case. Theoretical implications derived from this study call for further specification of basic ACF concepts (external perturbations, dominant coalitions, and skillful exploitation) and posit the intensity and breadth of political conflict and strategic action as critical factors contributing to the explanation of policy change in contested policy areas. Adapted from the source document.