From governing during the flood crisis to governing the flood crisis: the case of flood-risk management in Acre (Brazil)

Abstract

Recent studies explore the factors that shape governmental responses to crises, such as institutional contexts, actors’ ideas and framing strategies, policy design and capacities, and governance capacity and legitimacy. This article contributes to this discussion by examining how governments’ framing of crises influences how they govern them. Drawing on a qualitative and historical case study of flood crises in Acre (Brazil) based on interviews and official documents, the study reveals that political actors and bureaucrats gradually redefined and reframed flood crises. Political actors and bureaucrats have shifted their understanding of crises, moving from uncontrollable natural disasters to socio-environmental events, encompassing dimensions of vulnerability and risk. This shift from emergency and reactive responses to the development of a new institutional governance model, in which data production and monitoring were critical, contributed to decreasing uncertainty and anticipating, planning, and addressing crises, as well as triggering policy capacity, moving from governing during crises to governing crises.