Resilience of Post-Disaster Emergency Response Networks: Evacuation Response and Texas School Districts

Studies of collaborative public management have relied on a number of concepts that are time-bound. Collaborative networks rely on trust and stable expectations - both elements that have strong temporal elements. Despite this attention, there has been less research into the evolution of collaborative relationships than one would expect - especially using large-N quantitative methodologies. This is due in part to the methodological difficulties of studying relationships across time using survey methodologies. This paper reports results from a survey of school districts immediately following Hurricane Katrina that asked about their collaborative relationships - including their intentions to sustain collaborative relationships. The results suggest that collaborative relationships involving sharing resources and more involved communication are more likely to serve the basis for continuing collaborations. The results also suggest the limitation of single-shot surveys as a method for investigating the evolution of collaborative relationships and justifications for moving to (admittedly more difficult) panel designs.