Role of the Individual in Crisis Management Policies : Using a Human Security Perspective to Understand the Gap Between Policy and Reality

Abstract: The purpose of this study is twofold; to apply a human security perspective on our understanding of the individual’s role in crisis management policies and to explore how the issue of the individual’s role is represented in policies from the Swedish Contingencies Agency (MSB). Carol Bacchi’s post-structural policy analysis method “What’s the problem represented to be” (WPR) is used to problematize and understand these representations. The method enabled the author to shed light on how the issue is constructed and represented in policy. Interviews with MSB personnel and other professionals served as a valuable complement to get an inside perspective. This study concludes that the role of the individual is represented in terms of economic efficiency, where the individual is viewed as a resource and not an actor. Furthermore, efforts to include and inform the individual is limited to a representation of survival, not empowerment. This has implications for the policies effects and the realization of political goals for a resilient society. This study also concludes that a crisis management structure based on a human security perspective will be more capable of including the individual. Without a human security perspective, the individual will be caught between policy and reality, and the policies intended to include the individual will not produce the desired outcome.