Understanding the cognitive gap between humanitarians and survivors during humanitarian operations

Abstract

PurposeThis article intended to add clarity about the role of symbolic constructions used by humanitarian executives and disaster survivors to relate with one another. Design/methodology/approachA total of 30 purposefully sampled decision-makers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The conversations were transcribed in full and analyzed using a deductive approach. The article undergoes an analysis of the institutional logics that are used by both collectives in the aftermath of a disaster. Data from field research trips to Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Mozambique were also used. Research limitations/implicationsConsidering the limited amount of data collected, the findings of this article cannot be considered representative of the global humanitarian community. But it provides crucial insights to open a new field of research that has not received enough attention yet: the role of symbolic constructions in the relationship between different collectives during international humanitarian interventions. FindingsThe research supports that disasters affect the cognitive structures of international humanitarian actors and local stakeholders alike but in different ways. Because of this, their post-disaster institutional systems are unarguably different. ImplicationsConsequently, how they perceive and interpret the new post-disaster reality is different, having important implications in the way they relate.