Disaster governance as the governance of decentralized systems: the case of the 2003 Bam earthquake in Iran

Purpose This study aims to yield significant insight into decentralized Disaster Governance (DG), explaining the passage from selecting actors and defining actions to determining outcomes in a decentralized process. Design/methodology/approach We adopt the systems thinking approach to investigate the reconstruction program after the 2003 Bam earthquake in Iran. In-depth interviews are our main source of data that are carefully triangulated with findings from the review of documents and our direct observations. Findings We detected many shortcomings in this program, among which incomplete decentralization is highly prominent. In the Bam recovery program, tasks were delegated to varied actors based on their capacities without considering potential conflicts of interests and their unbalanced authority to serve their benefits. Meanwhile, the impact of the country's unstable political climate on restricting or liberating actors' influence on the recovery program was overlooked. These split relationships between DG components finally obstructed decentralization by intensifying conflicts of interest, which eventually compromised recovery objectives. Practical implications The results reveal the importance of adopting mechanisms to ensure monitoring systems' and governments' neutrality and limit any political influence over the outcomes. Originality/value DG concept is relatively new in disaster literature and despite its advancement in the last two decades, many studies still contribute to the epistemology of DG and its assessment methodology. However, the relationship between DG's components remains still obscure. This study tries to bridge this gap and make the concept more practical.