CIVIL SOCIETY AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT: CASE OF MARMARA EARTHQUAKE

Elektronik Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi® Electronic Journal of Social Sciences® Ekim/October(2020) - Cilt/Volume:19 - Sayı/Issue:76 www.esosder.org ISSN:1304-0278 (2044-2056) CIVIL SOCIETY AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT: CASE OF MARMARA EARTHQUAKE AFET YÖNETĠMĠ VE SĠVĠL TOPLUM: MARMARA DEPREMĠ ÖRNEĞĠ Güneş ERTAN 1 Abstract Despite the abundance of studies on performance of public organizations involved in the disaster management system of Turkey, there had been limited attention to the role of civil initiatives involved in disaster management. The disaster response operations in the aftermath of the Marmara earthquake showed that the interaction between public organizations and civil society organizations, and the coordination among the civil society organizations themselves have been very limited. After reviewing the literature on interorganizational response systems following the Marmara Earthquake, this study uses a novel data set to decipher the collective action problems of civil society organizations in Turkish disaster response system using network analysis. The study concludes with a set of policy recommendations to enhance coordination and cooperation among organizations involved in the governance of Turkish disaster management system. Keywords: Disaster management, civil society, social networks Öz Türkiye'nin afet yönetim sistemine dahil olan kamu kuruluşlarının performansı konusunda çok sayıda akademik çalışma bulunmaktadır. Ancak afet yönetiminde yer alan sivil inisiyatiflerin rolüne sınırlı bir ilgi gösterilmiştir. Marmara depremi sonrasında gerçekleşen afet müda hale operasyonları, kamu kuruluşları ile sivil toplum kuruluşları arasındaki etkileşimin ve sivil toplum kuruluşları arasındaki koordinasyonun çok sınırlı olduğunu göstermiştir. Bu çalışma Marmara depreminden sonra gerçekleşen örgütler arası işbirliklerini inceleyen bir literatür taraması yaptıktan sonra yeni bir veri seti kullanarak Türkiye afet müdahale sistemindeki sivil toplum kuruluşlarının kolektif eylem sorunlarını ağ analizi kullanarak incelemektedir. Çalışma, Türk afet yönetişim sisteminde yer alan kuruluşlar arasındaki koordinasyonu ve işbirliğini geliştirmek için bir dizi politika önerisiyle sonuçlanmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Afet yönetimi, sivil toplum, sosyal ağlar. 1 Dr. Öğr. Üyesi, Koç Üniversitesi Ġktisadi ve Ġdari Bilimler Fakültesi, , Orcid:0000-0002-7997-6748 Makale Türü: Araştırma Makalesi – Geliş Tarihi : 01/07/2019 – Kabul Tarihi: 10/07/2020 DOI:10.17755/esosder.585089 Atıf için: Elektronik Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2020; 19(76):2044-2056. Ekim/October(2020) – Cilt/Volume:19 – Sayı/Issue:76 (2044-2056) Introduction The high level of disaster risk in Turkey is well-acknowledged by scientists, policy makers, and policy analysts. On the other hand, as revealed by the catastrophic social, economic, and environmental impacts of the twin earthquakes in Marmara region in 1999, disaster response system in Turkey is still far from being effective in terms of reducing the level of vulnerability and increasing the resilience of communities living in high risk regions. On August 17, 1999 the region between Bolu and Istanbul was hit by a strong earthquake for 45 seconds (7.6 on the Richter Scale). According to official numbers 17,127 people were killed and 43,959 injured. The economic damage is estimated to be between US$9 and $13 billion (DPT, 1999).The scholarly work preceding the Marmara earthquake mostly focused on government failure that turned a natural disaster into a social one. The Turkish state neither had the capacity, nor an appropriate plan to manage a crisis of this intensity (Jalali, 2002; World Bank, 1999). Many scholars and practitioners criticized the performance of public agencies due to lack of slow and inadequate response and relief operations (e.g. Jalali, 2002; World Bank, 1999; Kubicek, 2002; Bakir and Boduroglu, 2002), inadequacy of response plans in all levels of government (Boduroglu, 1999; Erkoc, 2001), high levels of corruption among government officials that obstructed the enforcement of building and safety regulations which dramatically contributed to the large number of human losses (Istanbul Technical University, 1999; Ozerdem and Jacoby, 2005; Ozerdem and Barakat, 2000; Kubicek, 2001); and very centralized and top-down perspective on disaster management (Karanci and Aksit, 2000; Ergunay, 1999). Despite the abundance of studies on performance of public organizations involved in the disaster management system of Turkey, there had been limited attention to the role of civil initiatives involved in disaster management. Numerous civil society organizations (CSOs) following the Marmara Earthquake were on the ground during the emergency response and recovery efforts. The presence of large number of CSOs in disaster response was a first in the history of Turkish republic. Participation of Turkish CSOs in disaster response was a welcomed event by experts in all sectors. However the emergence of diverse and large number of nongovernmental actors within the disaster management system raised very important policy issues such as the integration of CSOs to the formal disaster management system, and the challenge of cooperation of the CSOs within themselves to maximize the effectiveness of their resources. The experience of disaster response in the aftermath of the Marmara earthquake showed that the interaction between public organizations and CSOs, and the coordination among the CSOs themselves have been very limited. After reviewing the literature on interorganizational response systems following the Marmara Earthquake, this study uses a novel data set to decipher the collective action problems of CSOs in Turkish disaster response system using network analysis. The study concludes with a set of policy recommendations to enhance coordination and cooperation between organizations involved in the governance of Turkish disaster management system. 2045 Ekim/October(2020) – Cilt/Volume:19 – Sayı/Issue:76 (2044-2056) Interaction between CSOs and Public Organizations Following the Marmara Earthquake Turkey is generally described as having a strong, centralized state tradition and a weak civil society. Heper and Yildirim (2011) consider pervasive populism, clientelism, opportunism, and personalism, scarcity of tolerance, lack of altruism, and pluralism as the main reasons for the weakness of civil society in Turkey. High level of participation of CSOs in disaster response and recovery operations following the Marmara earthquake is considered as the single most important positive outcome of the Marmara earthquake. According to the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey (TUSEV) Marmara earthquake is among the three most crucial events that contributed to the development of civil society in Turkey (others include EU admission process, and 1996 UN Habitat Conference II (Ozerdem and Jacoby, 2006). Kubicek (2002) argues that state’s inability to respond effectively generated a just (...truncated)