The Status of Emergency Management Theory: Issues, Barriers, and Recommendations for Improved Scholarship

A massive transformation is taking place in emergency management right now. For good or for bad, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States have resulted in a significant reformulation of the purpose and nature of emergency management. Terrorism has become the hazard of priority among those making policy decisions. The establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, with the incorporation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, amounts to the most sweeping reorganization of government over the past five decades. Emergency managers have obtained a long-overdue (but still incomplete) recognition from the general public while politicians and legislators have increased funding for the profession to historic levels. The field is also being positively and negatively affected by recent technological developments such as GIS and further industrialization. In addition, training and educational opportunities are providing a more knowledgeable cadre of professionals to meet the future challenges that will inevitably result from further urbanization and modern infrastructure. The demands placed on emergency managers have risen, but there are also other stakeholders that desire to contribute to the goals of disaster prevention and preparedness. Emergency management still retains vestiges of the past of course. But it is, nonetheless, dramatically different than it was in prior years. In some ways, similar changes are occurring in disaster scholarship and in emergency management research. Our views about the causes of disasters have shifted, and we now more fully understand the plethora of variables that contribute to their occurrence. The lessons from Sociology and Geography remain as important as ever, but