Cross-country use of participatory research methods in practice to enhance inclusive decision-making
Disaster Prevention and Management
ISSN: 0965-3562
Article publication date: 31 December 2021
Issue publication date: 17 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Rethinking participation in disaster research and practice could be facilitated when practitioners are provided with opportunities to pause and reflect deeply on their work outside of the context of their own individual projects and organizational networks. The article draws from an extended collaboration between researchers from multiple countries and disciplines in a working group, which aimed at exploring ethics, participation and power in disaster management.
Design/methodology/approach
Under responsible engineering science and technology for disaster risk management, the authors undertook weekly meetings over four months to discuss various facets of adopting participatory methods in their individual projects in Nepal, India, the Philippines and the USA. The article develops a critical reflection of practice using an auto-ethnographical and poly-vocal approach.
Findings
The voluntary, digital, sustained, unstructured, recurring and inter-disciplinary characteristics of the authors' working group created an opportunity for researchers and practitioners from different fields and different national, cultural and linguistic backgrounds to come together and collectively issues related to participation, ethics and power.
Research limitations/implications
In the paper, the authors do not offer a systematic evaluation of what was a fairly unique process. The paper offers no evaluation of the working group or others like it that focus on questions of replicability, scale and sustainability.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current work is a unique paper that focuses on situating multi-disciplinary practice within disaster risk management (DRM) and enhancing networks, capacities and expertise for professional education for engineers, physical and social scientists who are involved in research and practice. The polyvocal character of the presentation will help readers access the particular experiences of the participants, which reflect the deeply personal character of the subject matter.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Co-Risk Labs for providing with this platform to meet researchers from across the globe during challenging times. The authors are indebted to the peoples and organizations who have influenced the thinking and research practice. The authors are grateful for insightful comments on early versions of the article from Susie Goodall, Zainab Khalid, Monia Del Pinto and Roaa Mohammed Hajjam as well as our mentor Ksenia Chmutina. Thanks to the guest editors at the journal and to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and suggestions.
Citation
Krishnan, S., Soden, R., Aguihon, B., Liu, R. and Khatiwada, P. (2022), "Cross-country use of participatory research methods in practice to enhance inclusive decision-making", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 115-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-03-2021-0097
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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