Learning from Crises and Major Accidents: From Post-Crisis Fantasy Documents to Actual Learning in the Heat of Crisis

摘要

The insight that modern democracies face an increasing number of crises with large human, political, social, and financial repercussions has necessitated a greater understanding of the relation between crisis and learning. On a practical level governments invest heavily in resilient designs, increased information sharing and coordination, and training programs to make public servants responsible, efficient, and resourceful crisis managers. Meanwhile the academic community has produced a fair number of studies aimed at explaining the complex nexus. The bulk of these studies, however, remain on a high level of abstraction. In all likelihood, the main reason for this is that the concept of crisis-induced learning is difficult to observe and operationa-lize. This has led to a lack of empirical studies within the field, which, in turn, has kept the level of knowledge within the field from advancing. So far the academic literature is mostly confined to dealing with factors that impede organizational learning or issues regarding why we should not expect a learning response to disasters.