Exploring complex adaptive networks in the aftermath of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China

Abstract

In the decade since the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, significant earthquakes have occurred in Yushu, Lushan, and Ludian in China. A comparison of the collaborative behaviors of emergency organizations in these four cases reveals some trends or regularities. This study uses complex adaptive network theory to examine three propositions: first, organizational collaborative behaviors are driven by tasks; second, government departments show less initiative in cross-sector cooperation than NGOs and enterprises; and third, the emergency management network has a core-periphery structure. All of these propositions are supported by our social network analysis (SNA), which considers modularity, centrality, cliques, and singular value decomposition (SVD) in a two-mode network. The results support the three propositions given above and suggest that emergency management networks are time-variant systems. In particular, we argue that estrangement between different sectors needs to be overcome to improve these networks.