Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency Research Articles

Responsibilization as a return to collectivity? Legitimating the responsibilization of preparedness: the case of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB)

PurposeThis study investigates how communication is used by a Swedish public authority to legitimate the responsibilization of preparedness, i.e. how the state encourages individual citizens to take more responsibility for their security.Design/methodology/approachA multimodal discursive approach drawing on multimodal narrative analysis of video clips and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) is used to examine how the responsibilization of preparedness is legitimated in video material published on Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency's (MSB’s) YouTube channel.FindingsThe study finds that the responsibilization of preparedness is legitimated through an ongoing but evolving normalization of threat. The findings also show how responsibilization is legitimated in moralizing terms of individual contribution to society, which may indicate a return from neo-liberal values to more traditional Swedish collectivist values.Originality/valueThe study shows how communication around preparedness and responsibilization is discursively constructed and legitimated through multimodal features, while previous research has mainly focused on verbal or written communication.

Fire Safety Disparities in Sweden: Sociodemographic Influences and the Impact of Societal Protection on Personal Fire Prevention Measures

AbstractPrevious research has identified sociodemographic inequalities in fire prevention measures. This study examined whether sociodemographic differences persist in the Swedish population concerning fire prevention measures and particularly whether there remains an inverted u-curve related to age in protection habits. Additionally, it investigated whether fire protection practices are influenced by the level of societal protection. The research utilised survey data and register data from The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and Statistics Sweden. A latent class analysis was conducted, dividing respondents into four latent classes, followed by two binomial regression analyses. The study revealed three key findings regarding fire protection measures. First, certain demographic groups, namely the young, women, single and childfree households, low-income and low-education individuals, immigrants, and urban residents, are disproportionately lacking optimal fire safety measures. Second, although a safety maturity curve is still observed, older adults in Sweden today are considerably more protected compared to 15–20 years ago, indicating that safety practices employed during middle age continue into old age. Third, a trend is observed where individuals living in areas with more efficient professional rescue services tend to have lower levels of personal fire protection, suggesting a rational choice based on the perceived level of societal protection.

Safety at waste and recycling industry: Detection and mitigation of waste fire accidents

In this study, NASA’s VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) fire hotspots and data of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), collected between 2012 and 2018, was integrated to characterize waste fire incidents that were detected by VIIRS and reported to MSB (DaR), detected by VIIRS but not reported to MSB (DbNR) and that are reported to MSB but not detected by VIIRS (RbND). Results show that the average number of open waste fire incidents per million capita per year (AFIPMC) in Sweden, for the period 2012–2018, ranges from 2.4 to 4.7. Although a weak correlation exists (r = 0.44, P = 0.1563, one tailed) between years and number of fire incidents (MSB + VIIRS fires), a continuous increase in number of fire incidents was recorded between 2014 and 2018. It is concluded that the use of satellite data of fire anomalies, in-combination with the use of incident reports, will help in formalizing more reliable and comprehensive waste fire statistics. Another focus area of the article is to consolidate the recommendations and routines for safe storage of waste and biofuels and to present the lessons that can be learnt from past fire incidents. The article also discusses the technical, political, economic, social, and practical aspects of waste fires and provide a baseline for future research and experimentation.

Barriers and Facilitators for Implementation of Individualized Fire Safety (IFS) in Sweden

In 2010, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) announced a “vision zero” of zero fire deaths in Sweden by 2050. Studies into fire deaths have identified that certain risk groups, including but not limited to older people, are overrepresented in fire death statistics in Sweden. The MSB has developed guidelines for how individualised fire safety (IFS) can be implemented in local communities for risk groups, in support of their vision zero for fire deaths. This paper presents the results of an interview study with a selection of Swedish municipalities to further explore how municipalities are working with IFS programs for community dwelling older people. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research has been used to analyse data developed through semi-structured interviews, from an analysis of the delegation of authority from MSB to local level and assessment of secondary documentation from national, regional and local organisations. The analysis has identified that IFS has, indeed, been implemented to varying degrees in Sweden, but that there are both facilitators and barriers which can be further leveraged to improve the implementation of IFS in the future.

For safety’s sake: the strategies of institutional entrepreneurs and bureaucratic reforms in Swedish crisis management, 2001–2009

This study focuses on the bureaucratic reforms in Sweden which resulted in the creation of the Secretariat for Crisis Management and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. We investigate the mechanisms that lead to divergent change through the critical juncture analytical approach. The study’s findings suggest that the bureaucratic reforms were the result of the critical juncture between 2001 and 2009, which included, inter alia, the release of a commission of inquiry report, a major political crisis and a national election. Moreover, we situate entrepreneurial agency in this analysis while we contribute to the theorization of institutional entrepreneurship by focusing on the implementation stage of institutional change. In order to overcome the institutional resistance stemming from an attempt to preserve the existing power structures, institutional entrepreneurs use the following three strategies: (i) the strategy of listening; (ii) the strategy of advertising early success and (iii) the strategy of picking up the phone.

Limitations of the Swedish network coordination of oil spill preparedness

The management of extreme crisis situations in Sweden has shown delays in decisive actions at higher levels during emergencies, such as oil spills. This has been blamed on unclear responsibilities that undermine the decision‐making process. Confusing, conflicting, or delayed orders impede response effectiveness. This article uses network analysis and survey responses to examine the Swedish oil spill crisis management network and show the Swedish Coast Guard, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and Oil Spill Advisory Service as central organizations. However, the roles of these organizations need to be clarified and communicated better to other organizations. In order to improve coordination of Swedish oil spill preparedness, it is suggested to formalize and strengthen the roles of these central organizations. Weak connections between municipalities in different counties were also observed. This weakness could be overcome by more frequent exercises across counties to improve familiarity.

Limitations of the Swedish coordination capacity for large oil spills

The inadequacy of the Swedish national emergency management system has been highlighted during several large-scale national emergencies, including forest fires (Västmanland 2014) and storms (Gudrun 2005, Dagmar 2011, and Ivar 2013). The Swedish oil spill preparedness is part of the national emergency response system and was tested under real conditions during the 2003 Fu Shan Hai and 2011 Golden Trader oil spills. Fu Shan Hai spilled 1,200 tonnes of oil on the shorelines of southern Sweden and Golden Trader spilled 500 tonnes on the island of Tjörn. Lessons learned from these incidents and national exercises highlight problems with understanding and cooperation between the organisations responsible during the emergency phase. Complications in the decision-making process lead to confusing, conflicting, or delayed orders, impeding the effectiveness of the response. These difficulties were evident at local, regional, and national levels during the oil spill response. The Swedish oil spill preparedness system does not have a hierarchical structure. Network analysis and surveys of all coastal municipalities, County Administrative Boards and interviews with national oil spill experts were used to examine the characteristics of the oil spill network. This study shows that 80% of the involved organisations have explicit mandates for oil spill preparedness. An established management network exists, covering 83% of the maximum theoretical connections for contingency planning and 88% for response. The Swedish Coast Guard, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, and Oil Spill Advisory Service are central organisations. The roles of the Swedish Coast Guard are clear to the respondents, but the roles of the Swedish Transport Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, and Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management are less clear. For planning, the municipalities, County Administrative Boards, Swedish Coast Guard, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, and Oil Spill Equipment Depots are considered the most valuable. For response, the municipalities, Swedish Coast Guard, Oil Spill Equipment Depots, County Administrative Boards, Oil Spill Advisory Service, and Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency are considered the most valuable. The few connections between the counties and sometimes between neighbouring municipalities in the network, suggests a need to establish an Incident Management System for national cross-organisational emergencies, such as large oil spills. Most importantly, more cross-organisational exercises are needed to build capacity and the necessary inter-organisational relationships. The authors recommend the formation of an Incident Management System in Sweden in order to improve the management of large oil spills.

Identifying schools at risk of fire-setting

School fires have become a cause of concern in Sweden in recent years. The fire brigades assess that the majority of these fires are intentionally ignited. This research seeks to identify categories of schools at elevated risk of fire-setting by matching data on school fires from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency with data on schools from the Swedish National Agency for Education and calculating fire rates. The results indicate that schools which include senior level pupils, larger sized schools, schools organized by a public provider and schools located in bigger cities experience significantly higher rates of fire-setting. The risk of fire-setting is unevenly distributed across school categories in Sweden and knowledge on the relative proneness would help school and fire officials to set more informed priorities in their safety work.

The Dynamics of Sensemaking and Information Seeking in a Crisis Situation

Abstract The present article investigates two questions: What determines citizens’ use of different media to seek information in a crisis situation, and what influences their evaluation of the information found. The case analysed is a major fire at a chemical storage facility in the harbour of Halmstad in Sweden, where there was a risk of toxic fumes reaching the city and its approximately 60,000 inhabitants. The study is part of a larger project, financed by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, and in this part, focus group interviews are analysed. The results point to an interaction between citizens’ perception of the world, the perceived information, and the development of how the situation is regarded, where sensemaking is the pivotal concept.

Challenges in coordination: differences in perception of civil and military organizations by comparing international scientific literature and field experiences

The extreme pressure resulting from modern-day disasters in terms of severe shortages of resources, mass casualties, infrastructure breakdown, large-scale damage and their impact necessitate coordination between all the agencies involved in disaster response. Better coordination in international disaster response operations will make them more effective in organizing the different phases of relief, rehabilitation and recovery. Recent disasters such as the hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the earthquake in Haiti have seen multiple civil agencies and the military working together. However, challenges have been identified in civil–military coordination. Differences in working procedures and a lack of knowledge on the other’s organizational identities resulted in stereotyping and prejudices, which are root obstacles to coordination. The aim of this study was to identify the perception-related challenges in civil–military coordination, and how they are perceived in the field by civil and military teams, and to investigate whether perception-related challenges and their implications have been reported in the international literature. A systematic literature review and 12 semi-structured interviews were carried out to answer these questions. Nine out of the 12 respondents were practitioners from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) and the Swedish military, with experience of international disaster response missions that involved civil–military interactions, and 3 were trainees from Karlberg Military Academy, Stockholm, who were expected to participate in similar operations in the near future. The questions asked during the interviews were based on the systematic literature review. National backgrounds, attitudes and perceptions of the professionals towards the other organization were found to be key factors influencing civil–military coordination. This indicates that comparisons between the perceptions of professionals from both civil and military teams with different nationalities and different political histories should be carried out in future research.

Characteristics of lifesaving from drowning as reported by the Swedish Fire and Rescue Services 1996–2010

AimWe aimed to describe characteristics associated with rescue from drowning as reported by the Swedish Fire and Rescue Services (SFARS) and their association with survival from the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) registry. MethodThis retrospective study is based on the OHCA registry and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (SCCA) registry. All emergency calls (1996–2010) where the SFARS were dispatched were included (n=7175). For analysis of survival, OHCAs that matched events from the SCCA registry were included (n=250). ResultsCalls to lakes and ponds were predominant (35% of all calls reported). Rescues were more likely in cold water, <10°C (45%), in open water (80%) and in April–September (68%). Median delay from a call to arrival of rescue services was 8min, while it was 9min for rescue diving units.Of all OHCA cases, the victim was found at the surface in 47% and underwater in 38%. In events where rescue divers were used, victims were significantly younger than in non-diving cardiac arrests and the mean diving depth was 6.3±5.8m. Overall survival to one month was 5.6% (13% in diving and 4.7% in non-diving cases; p=0.07). ConclusionIn half of more than 7000 drowning-related calls to the SFARS during 15 years of practice, water rescue was needed. In all treated OHCA cases, the majority were found at the surface. Only in a small percentage did rescue diving take place. In these cases, survival did not appear to be poorer than in non-diving cases.

NATO and Sweden Joint Live Experiment on NEC

The overall objective for the project was to test if a service oriented ar- chitecture could facilitate the vision in the NATO NEC Feasibility Study, that states Network Enabled Capability (NNEC) involves the linking together of sen- sors, decision makers, and weapon systems, as well as multinational military, gov- ernmental, and non-governmental agencies in a seamless, collaborative, planning, assessment and execution environment. The idea was to see if the utilization of NATO NEC developments together with Swedish NDB results could bring about new techniques that were more flexible and dynamic in its support of civil military co-operation and the Comprehensive Approach. The result of the live experiment was overwhelming, in about some six month the project team succeeded to federate together some 30 different types of information and C2 systems were both civil and military units could share the same operational picture and retrieve it from their own specialized systems. The federated system consisted of fully blown operational systems as the NATO AWAC to system on the experimental level. A main con- tributor to the success was the utilization of a Service Oriented Architecture. To verify the operational side of NEC, four different vignettes were created under the umbrella of the protection of a high level meeting in the Swedish city of Goteborg. Operating together in the scenarios was several different NATO entities, Swedish military units, the Swedish Police, the Swedish Rescue Service, Swedish SOS Alarm (911/112 functionality) and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. The federated information sharing environment was accredited by both Swedish and NATO Security Authorities.