Normalising community-led, empowered, disaster planning: Reshaping norms of power and knowledge

Margot Rawsthorne; Amanda Howard; Pam Joseph

doi:10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1258

Authors

Margot Rawsthorne University of Sydney https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6337-7671
Amanda Howard University of Sydney
Pam Joseph University of Sydney https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0554-3560

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1258

Keywords:

Disasters, Australia, normalisation, shared responsibility

Abstract

Disasters (and the dynamics that proceed and follow them) are inherently disruptive of customary routines and taken for granted ordinariness. Many fear that in the context of climate change disasters will become “the new norm”. How we prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters provide a rich terrain for exploring “normality” and interrogating normalising processes. In this article we draw on insights from empirical research on policy efforts in disaster preparedness in New South Wales, Australia. This research suggests that understandings of “the norm” is a site of contestation. This discursive debate is most evident in policy and practice prescriptions for “shared responsibility”. International and national policy is shifting responsibility for disaster preparedness away from institutions of the State to the individual within the local community. In practice, we see this shift simultaneously resisted and embraced with “norms” in disasters reshaped in multiple sites and in multiple directions. The paper concludes that engagement in complex debates offers the possibility to disrupt traditional pattens and normalise community-led, empowered, responses to disasters.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Views 899
Downloads:
PDF_12_3_Rawsthorne_et_al_OSLS 433
XML_12_3_Rawsthorne_et_al_OSLS 64

Author Biographies

Margot Rawsthorne, University of Sydney

Social Work & Policy Studies

School of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney

Amanda Howard, University of Sydney

Social Work & Policy Studies, University of Sydney

Pam Joseph, University of Sydney

Dr. Pam Joseph. Social Work & Policy Studies, University of Sydney. Email: pam.joseph@sydney.edu.au

References

Atkinson, C., and Curnin, S., 2020. Sharing responsibility in disaster management policy. Progress in Disaster Science, vol. 7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdisas.2020.100122

Banks, N., and Austin, D., 2019. Climate Ready Communities: empowering communities to spread climate preparedness messaging and take local action. Australian Journal of Emergency Management [online], Monograph No. 5, pp. 61–65. https://www.aidr.org.au/media/7379/monograph-no5-extended-abstracts-final.pdf [Accessed 13 October 2021].

Commonwealth of Australia, 2018. National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework [online]. Belconnen: Department of Home Affairs, Commonwealth of Australia. Available from: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/emergency/files/national-disaster-risk-reduction-framework.pdf [Accessed 13 October 2021].

Council of Australian Governments, 2011a. Council of Australian Governments Meeting: Communiqué 13 February. Australian Journal of Emergency Management [online], 26(2). Available from: https://ajem.infoservices.com.au/items/AJEM-26-02-04 [Accessed 13 October 2021].

Council of Australian Governments, 2011b. National Strategy for Disaster Resilience [online]. Barton: Commonwealth of Australia. Available from: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/emergency/files/national-strategy-disaster-resilience.pdf [Accessed 13 October 2021].

Cretney, R., 2018. Beyond public meetings: diverse forms of community led recovery following disaster. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 28, pp. 122–130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.02.035

Dominey-Howes, D., 2015. Explainer: are natural disasters on the rise? The Conversation [online], 25 March. Available from: https://theconversation.com/explainer-are-natural-disasters-on-the-rise-39232 [Accessed 13 October 2021].

Foucault, M., 1980. The Archaeology of Knowledge. New York: Routledge.

Foucault, M., 1989. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings. New York: Pantheon.

Gibbs, L., et al., 2015. Cost and outcomes associated with participating in the Community Fireguard Program: Experiences from the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction [online], vol. 13, pp. 375–380. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2015.07.016 [Accessed 21 October 2021]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2015.07.016

Howard, A., and Rawsthorne, M., 2019. Everyday Community Practice. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003115557

Lanzara, G.F., 1983. Ephemeral organizations in extreme environments: Emergence, strategy, extinction. Journal of Management Studies, 20(1), pp. 71–95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1983.tb00199.x

Lewis, A., 2019. Everyday heroes: Meet firefighters from FRNSW and RFS Riverina crews who fought to stop NSW burning. The Courier [online], 15 November. Available from: https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/6494883/everyday-heroes-meet-local-firies-who-fought-to-stop-nsw-burning/ [Accessed 13 October 2021].

Lukasiewicz, A., Dovers, S., and Eburn, M., 2017. Shared responsibility: The who, what and how. Environmental Hazards, 16(4), pp. 291–313. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2017.1298510

Maguire, P., 2001, Uneven ground: feminisms and action research. In: P. Reason and H. Bradbury, eds., Handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

McIntyre, A., 2008. Participatory action research. Thousand Oaks: Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483385679

McLennan, B., and Eburn, M., 2015. Exposing hidden-value trade-offs: sharing wildfire management responsibility between government and citizens. International Journal of Wildland Fire [online], 24(2), pp. 162–169. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1071/WF12201 [Accessed 13 October 2021]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/WF12201

McTaggart, R., ed., 1997. Participatory action research: International contexts and consequences. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Pestrin, S., and Seiler, M., 2020. Victorian bushfires: share your message of support for our heroes and communities. The Herald Sun [online], 20 January. Available from: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/victorian-bushfires-share-your-message-of-support-for-our-heroes-and-communities/news-story/ab8b62f1737f5b62699da867edd57114 [Accessed 13 October 2021].

Petherbridge, D 2016. What’s critical about vulnerability? Rethinking interdependence, recognition, and power. Hypatia, 31(3), pp. 589–604. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12250

Reason, P., and Bradbury, H., 2000. Introduction: inquiry and participation in search of a world worthy of human aspiration. In: P. Reason and H. Bradbury, eds., Handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Silver, A., and Matthews, L., 2017. The use of Facebook for information seeking, decision support, and self-organization following a significant disaster. Information, Communication & Society, 20(11), pp. 1680–1697. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1253762

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 [online]. Sendai: Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, 14-18 March. Available from: https://www.preventionweb.net/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf [Accessed 13 October 2021].