Vulnerabilities of Social Structures - The Black Vault

ehavior and behavioral ordering constitute the basic inventory for1% social reconstruction and recovery, the decision to guide reconstructionin desired directions is a policy decision, not directly derivablefrom the logic used to describe existing realities. (A. 6)a8. Adapting to the lack of a unified social model for planningpurposes (A. 7 and A. 7.1);9. Further developing what is both principle and hypothesis:(principle) that while society under stress of massive disaster canbe seen as a set of institutional domains whose interrelations areonly imperfectly understood, nevertheless (hypothesis) each domainhas a distinctive range of disaster-induced critical decision points,within which decisions affecting the longer term "viability" of that, institutional nexus must be made (A. 8);10. Using some useful working hypotheses in developing theprinciple and hypothesis combined in proposition 9 immediatelyabove: One is that at different times following attack, events inone institutional domain or social structural sector may be morecritical to survival and adaptation than events occurring in otherdomains of social phenomena. Another is that there are identifiablecritical patterns of social structure which are preconditions to institutionalmobilization and viability, within a given domain. Afinal set is that the greater the structural complexity and interdependenceof a society, the more quickly will social damage betranslated throughout the system, but more resources for recoverywill exist, because of redundant capacities --- once thesecapacities can be organized. (A. 8. 1 - A. 8. 3)11. Using the multiple functions of information about post-attacksociety: A given analysis, finding, or prediction about the postattacksituation may have more than one function in planning for andmanaging emergency. Such an increment to knowledge may be mostvivid as a breaker of myths, but it may be important to evaluate itssignificance as an item of additive knowledge --- unless, of course,myth-breaking is crucial to mobilization for viability and recovery.(A. 10)Within this general framework of findings, the shelter concept can be examinedas a concept which will affect a number of post-attack behavioral and institutionalprocesses. The existence of a shelter system, as a system for orderingbehavior, creates a number of ranges of post-attack behavioral possibilities. Bystudying these domains and their ranges, it may be possible to understand moreclearly not only the general consequences of any shelter system, but also the wayin which positing a shelter system provides the analyst with coherent clues aboutxv