Planning to learn: an insurgency for disaster risk reduction (DRR)

Abstract

Disaster management is a paradox its very name implies that disasters can be managed. Despite this paradox being commonly recognized, current practices and ideology are puzzlingly resilient. In this paper we analyse plans and planning as the underlying basis of disaster management, showing it to be a co-production of ideology-practice. Using direct engagement with disaster managers, the findings expose tensions between the boundaries imposed by planning and the opinions of experienced experts. We show that the over-arching goal of disaster management – enacted through and by planning – remains oriented towards imposing control, which contradicts what the experts believe is needed. Drawing on..