Introducing Performativity to Crisis Management Theory: An Illustration from the 2003 French Heat Wave Crisis Response

Abstract

International audienceWhile current crisis management literature focuses on the necessity of consistent data and shared interpretation to coordinate effectively, contrastingly, this paper highlights the predominating influence of crisis responders' performances on information transmission. Based on an exploratory interpretive analysis of the 2003 French heat wave crisis response, our findings reveal that performances can support immediate reaction and involvement, but can also generate conflicts or misunderstandings that may burden coordination. This work's contribution to the crisis management literature is in threefold. First, we enrich the crisis management literature by proposing performativity as a potential analytical lens for collective action during crisis response. Second, we propose some practical recommendations to improve crisis management training through the application of the concept of performativity. Finally, we propose a critical perspective on tacitly held assumptions in crisis management

Organizing for the Big One: A Review of Case Studies and a Research Agenda for Multi‐Agency Disaster Response

“…Sensemaking is a particularly promising theoretical framework for disaster response management, as it acknowledges explicitly that individuals interpret ongoing events not in a 'right' or 'wrong' way but develop individually plausible interpretations based on their respective situation, which explains why interpretations of events diverge substantially between individuals, groups and organizations at a given point in time (Weick, 1993;Weick, Sutcliffe & Obstfeld, 2005). Considering sensemaking as the link between cognition and action, we can derive a clearer understanding of the cognitive and affective underpinnings of multiagency coordination, as some studies demonstrated (e.g., Adrot et al, 2013;Linnenluecke et al, 2013;Schraagen et al, 2011). Employing these and other conceptually well-rooted theories could be the next step towards a theory of disaster response management, which is currently only vaguely visible on the horizon.…”

“…This in turn limits the consequences of a lack of trust and helps to contain the adverse effects of impression management. A strong vertical hierarchy might also mitigate this problem (Adrot & Moriceau, 2013;Kapucu, 2006), but both strong centralization and decentralization come at a price (cf. below).…”

Taming Deep Uncertainty: The Potential of Pragmatist Principles for Understanding and Improving Strategic Crisis Management

“…During and after the July 22, 2011, terrorist attack in Norway, for instance, the Prime Minister effectively communicated the grief and patriotism of the nation, but the Minister of Justice came to be negatively perceived as an apologist for the police (Christensen, Lægreid, & Rykkja, 2013). The dramaturgy of crisis requires crisis leaders to appreciate that strategic action is simultaneously instrumental and performative (Adrot & Moriceau, 2013; ‘t Hart, 1993).…”

Critical sensemaking: challenges and promises

“…This serves to obfuscate the differences and reduces the potential for developing a notion of sensemaking that does not rely on purely cognitive thought processes. Nonetheless, Adrot and Moriceau (2013) offer an interesting comment on performance and sensemaking when argue that while words provide a certain number of cues, performativity (i.e., performing an enacting sense) transmits 'not only informational or cognitive, but also emotional, affective, embodied and situated' sense (p. 28).…”