UNDER NEW (EMERGENCY) MANAGEMENT: THE FLINT WATER CRISIS, LEGIONNAIRES’ DISEASE AND RECREANCY

The environmental injustice evident in the events that led to the Flint Water Crisis shocked the nation and beyond. How could water from a municipal source with systematic measures in place for safeguarding be a source of harm to an entire community? Theoretical motivation for this study is rooted in Freudenburg’s (1993) concept of “recreancy,” the failure of government institutions to discharge their responsibilities to citizens appropriately and reliably. Researchers have documented recreancy in institutional responses to technological disasters, but it remains unclear what routine behaviors in government institutions lead to failure.