https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2664-2154
![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
When multiple types of disasters occur sequentially – a cascading disaster – certain adaptive capacities might become temporarily ineffective or invalid. Advancing an understanding of community resilience in the context of cascading disasters, the current study provides empirical evidence of a hybrid hyperlocal community of practice (HCoP), a novel communicative process facilitated by hybrid organizing, during the 2021 Texas, U.S.A. winter storm. Using interviews with 30 residents in a city that experienced critical infrastructure failures – i.e. power or water outages – we conducted a constant comparative analysis to explore how residents coped with a cascading winter storm through communicative practices. This study contributes to the community of practice literature by explicating how a sense of community is strengthened during a disaster through a hybrid hyperlocal community of practice (HCoP), and elaborates the actual mechanisms leading to community dysfunction when adaptive capacities became temporarily ineffective or invalid during a cascading disaster.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant: RAPID: Implications of Utilities Preparedness and Communication Strategies in Urban Populations’ Response under Extreme Weather Events, Award #2129801, and a Japan Science & Technology (JST) Grant: Resilience-based governance framework and practical models to build back better even before: Systems approach with the focus on cascading disasters. Any findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or JST.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).