Human Service Organizations in the Disaster Context

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Human Service Organizations and Disasters

   • Kate van Heugten

   Pages 1-18

3. Roles and Activities of Human Services in the Aftermath of Disasters

   • Kate van Heugten

   Pages 19-35

4. Theories for Praxis

   • Kate van Heugten

   Pages 37-54

5. The Canterbury Earthquakes

   • Kate van Heugten

   Pages 55-80

6. The Canterbury Earthquakes and the Politics of Disasters

   • Kate van Heugten

   Pages 81-101

7. Making Sense of Human Services in the Context of Community Disasters

   • Kate van Heugten

   Pages 103-127

8. Values, Meaning Making, and Community Building

   • Kate van Heugten

   Pages 129-149

9. Supporting the Human Services to Strengthen Communities

   • Kate van Heugten

   Pages 151-172

10. Back Matter

    Pages 173-209

    PDF

Human Service Organizations in the Disaster Context explores the efforts of human service practitioners to support communities facing the impacts of large-scale hazardous events. Using the stories of frontline workers and managers who lived through devastating earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand in 2010 and 2011, and drawing on international research and sociological theory, van Heugten astutely analyses the challenges and opportunities that arise. In the immediate aftermath of disasters, there is often a surge in altruism giving rise to hope for improved social cohesion. This hope wanes when negative impacts fall unequally on people living in poverty and other vulnerable populations. Political, financial, and professional interest groups vie for power and local citizens' voices are frequently overruled. Human service workers act as boundary spanners, networking between organizations to draw attention to the concerns of vulnerable people, and to advocate for human rights and social justice.

• Community disasters
• natural disasters
• earthquake
• workplace stress
• human services
• social services
• social work
• sociology
• non-governmental organizations
• NGO
• community work
• community development
• community resilience
• vulnerability
• social capital
• managerialism
• post-new public management
• post-NPM
• neoliberal
• wicked problems
• community
• organization
• politics
• service
• social justice

Kate van Heugten is Associate Professor of Human Services and Social Work at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

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