The nature of emergency preparedness is that problems are seldom immediate and continuous, and effective emergency planning requires the involvement and sustained commitment of multiple organisations and their personnel. It is proposed that the level of participation by local organisations in formal regional planning activities is related to the social position their managers play in local planning networks. Local organisations embedded in bonding structures may choose to be active in regional planning initiatives in order to establish close contacts with others they believe can provide them with valuable planning information. Alternatively, organisations may choose to be more active participants in region-wide planning activities because this role supports their bridging activities by providing them with greater control over information about the activities and resources of the different jurisdictions in the region. These propositions are examined through an analysis of the participation by officials from 73 local governments in two regional committees designed to promote emergency preparedness planning throughout the Dallas–Fort Worth–Denton, Texas, metropolitan area. The analysis provides strong support for the proposition that the organisations in bonding structures in this network have a more active role in the work of these two committees.

Although much has been written about interlocal agreements for the delivery of services, few studies have examined the factors that influence the establishment of different types of multilateral agreements (MLAs). To address this lacuna, the authors draw a distinction between an adaptive and restrictive MLA and seek to understand why local governments enter into one type of arrangement over the other. The authors build our theoretical argument on the basis of previous research that suggests agreements are designed to minimize the uncertainties associated with transaction risk. On the basis of this premise, the author’s general proposition is that the decision to establish an adaptive MLA is shaped by the asset specificity and measurability of the goods and services of the transaction. The authors utilize data on public safety agreements among municipal and county governments in the state of Florida. Findings suggest that local governments are more likely to form an adaptive MLA when goods and services are relatively high in service measurability difficulty and when both high and low asset specificity exit.

While much has been written about postdisaster housing reconstruction, few have explored the effects of certain types of building designs or materials in improving the quality of the housing stock, basic utilities, and amenities. This study examines housing improvements at two time points (six months and three-and-a-half years) after the 2004 tsunami and discusses structural recovery to the built form as well as households' perceptions of recovery at the individual and community levels. The analysis is made on the basis of surveys conducted in 558 rural households in the coastal district of Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, India. Findings suggest that the reconstructed core-housing units are structurally good and have improved because of a stricter adherence to building standards and materials. Despite assistance and improvements to their housing stock, respondents from the backward classes and scheduled castes, lower income groups, and those pursuing nonfishing livelihoods expressed lower levels of perceived ...

Following the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea, this research aims to examine the structural effect of public health network explaining collaboration effectiveness, which is defined as joint efforts to improve quality of service provision, cost savings, and coordination. We tested the bonding and bridging effects on collaboration effectiveness during the MERS outbreak response by utilizing an institutional collective action framework. The analysis results of 114 organizations responding during the crisis show a significant association between the bonding effect and the effectiveness of collaboration, as well as a positive association between risk communication in disseminating public health information and the effectiveness of collaboration.