This study examined the factors that influence a local government’s decision to engage in regional collaborations. Analysis of 7 local government managers and eleven elected officials revealed that the decision to engage in regional collaboration was influenced by external factors, organizational factors, and internal motivations. Elected officials and local government managers identified a disaster occurrence, fiscal stress, outside agencies, jurisdictional benefit, and communication as key factors. Further, this research highlights the importance of the role of the elected official in intergovernmental arrangements, the role of the local government manager as the policy entrepreneur, and the influence of shared norms and values.

For many regions and local governments, budgetary restraints limit funds appropriated for emergency management activities to inadequate levels, and little guidance exists related to decision factors used by elected officials in identifying budget and ordinance priorities. Using Kwon, Choi, and Bae's conceptualization of punctuated equilibrium theory, the purpose of this case study was to examine how decision factors influenced Hampton Roads, Virginia, elected official disaster recovery policy between 2003 and 2012. Data were collected through review of 1,310 city documents and 10 semistructured interviews with elected officials. Data were inductively coded and analyzed using a thematic analysis procedure. Data analysis resulted in the identification of 3 decision factor themes that guided post disaster recovery in Hampton Roads: (a) establishing a sense of normalcy in terms of budget appropriations and ordinances for security, safety and quality of services short-term recovery policy, (b) budgetary resiliency to encourage the restoration of infrastructure related to long-term recovery policy, and (c) the development of self-sufficient processes that lead to an anticipatory mindset with issuance of mitigation ordinances and capital improvement appropriations policy. The findings confirmed punctuated equilibrium theory, as man-made disasters triggered short-term recovery policy decisions. Results of the study may affect positive social change by providing local elected representatives with a 'tool kit' of decision factors to consistently address post disaster recovery policy for public safety, security, and stability via the governance mechanisms of strategic planning, appropriation decisions, and assessment.

Depuis plus de trente ans, l’intervention culturelle des villes n’a cessé de se développer et de se diffuser au travers du territoire national. Multiplication des structures, des projets, création régulière de délégations politiques adéquates ; la culture est un secteur qui a largement bénéficié du dynamisme impulsé par la décentralisation. Parallèlement, les modèles politiques locaux ont évolué avec la montée en puissance de « projets de territoires », englobant les différents secteurs, dont la culture, dans une politique globale. Si elle n’a pas eu de peine à trouver une place dans ces politiques, une idée aussi large et polymorphe que celle de « culture » a nécessairement vu ses contours évoluer. Dès lors plusieurs questions se posent. Quelle place les collectivités font-elles à l’héritage de la politique culturelle française « inventée » en 1959 ? Entre adhésion et opposition au modèle national, comment les politiques culturelles locales se construisent-elles ? Enfin, qu’est-ce qui « fait culture » pour des élus locaux le plus souvent éloignés des réseaux politiques ou des fédérations d’élus à la culture et qui ne peuvent compter que sur leur expérience et leur territoire pour s’approprier leur délégation ?C’est cette appropriation de la notion de culture que ce travail se propose d’explorer, au moyen d’outils issus du corpus de la sociologie des organisations. Le récit des élus à la culture sera mis en perspective avec celui des autres acteurs culturels, mais aussi du corpus de la sociologie de la culture en France, et plus largement de la notion de culture en sciences humaines. Cette confrontation aura pour objectif d’observer les processus « d’entrée en culture » par les élus locaux, la construction des convictions, des orientations politiques des objectifs et des résultats attendus, parfois éloignés des représentations les plus attendues mais nécessitant toute l’attention des acteurs culturels. Au fil des situations et à travers ces démarches, différentes facettes de la notion de culture apparaîtront, et permettront d’observer, à défaut d’une définition unique ce qui fonde la notion de culture dans les politiques locales françaises. / For more than thirty years, cultural involvement by cities has developed constantly and has spread across the nation. Facilities and projects have multiplied and appropriate political delegations have been created regularly: culture is a sector that has widely benefitted from the dynamism driven by decentralization.At the same time, local political models have developed with the rise in power of “territory projects”, encompassing difference sectors including culture within an overall political framework. Although it can scarcely be found within these policies, an idea as large and polymorphic as “culture” has naturally changed form.From that moment, many questions arise. What space do collectivities make for the heritage of the French cultural policy “invented” in 1959? Between adhering to and opposing the national model, how are local cultural policies constructed? Finally, what does culture “do” for local elected official, who are usually far removed from political networks and cultural federations of elected officials and who can only rely on their experience and their territory to appropriate their delegation? This appropriation of the notion of culture is what this work will explore, using tools of the sociological corpus of the organizations.The narrative of elected officials of culture will be put into perspective along with the narrative of other cultural stakeholders, but also in the sociological corpus of culture in France, and more widely, in the notion of culture to be found in human science.This confrontation will aim at observing the process of “entering into culture” by local elected officials, the construction of convictions, political alignment of objectives and expected results, which are sometimes far from the most expected representations but which require the full attention of cultural stakeholders. Through situations and through these procedures, different facets of the notion of culture will appear and will help us, for lack of a single definition, observe what the notion of culture initiates in French local politics.

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