Managing Bridging Capital in Post-Disaster Governance Networks in the United States and Indonesia
Purpose – This paper aims to explore the strategic use of bridging capital by brokers to facilitate coordination among civil society and state actor engaged in disaster response and relief efforts. Researching the dynamic of governance networks provides insights into the process of coordination and information and resource exchange to better utilize disaster management. Bridging capital used by brokers in disaster governance network allows mediating the flow of information among disconnected actors. The paper compares governance networks patterns and brokerage roles using evidence from the Gulf Coast Hurricanes (United States) and the West Sumatra Earthquakes (Indonesia). Design/Methodology – The methodological approach used to explore brokerage roles is among interacting network members – ego-network. In an ego-network each actor is connected to every other actor in the network. However, there could be members of the network who are not connected directly to one another. Formalization of brokerage roles in a disaster setting assigns each actor in the network a numerical score that sums the different occasions of brokerage activity in which that specific actor is involved. The numerical score (brokerage score) is calculated by counting the number of times each actor plays the role specified in each brokerage category. Using techniques of social network analysis (SNA) can identify which organizations played brokers within governance networks during the phase of disaster response and relief efforts in United States (The Gulf Coast Hurricanes, 2005) and in Indonesia (the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami). The data was then analyzed by means of social network analysis using UCINET 6 software, as well qualitative analysis, from which the conclusions in this research are derived. Findings – SNA analysis of the disaster governance network indicates greater effectiveness in terms of achieving coordination in the Indonesian case than in the US case. The findings of the research s
