The Everyday Versus the Disaster Role of Local Officials

Abstract

This study examines the definitions of active citizens and local government officials regarding the everyday and disaster roles of local government. The principal finding is that citizens and officials agreed on the everyday but not the disaster role. Citizens expected a custodial orientation in the everyday situation, but an "active" one in disaster. Officials defined the everyday role as custodial and did the same for the disaster. The definitional incongruity in the disaster environment had consequences for at least two alterations in the postdisaster community structure: group emergence and political reorganization.