Decolonising knowledge production in disaster management: a feminist perspective

Abstract

PurposeThis paper focuses on how feminist research seeks to integrate the inclusion of women in society for them to be active participants in disaster management, and goes on to prove how crucial it is for disaster research to collaborate with feminist research to arrive at a cohesive, interwoven, interdisciplinary field and methodology, while at the same time giving the agency in the hands of local agents for them to bring about change through traditional methods interwoven with broader methodologies. To hand over the process to local agents would result in decolonisation of knowledge production and implementation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper was written using secondary sources, mainly in the form of books, journal articles and news articles. Reports by international organisations were used to augment data and other theoretical frameworks and references in the paper. The secondary sources were selected keeping in view one of the primary objectives of the paper, namely “decolonising knowledge production”. Analysis by postcolonial authors from the global South has been included. Research and literature based in local contexts form an important part of the sources consulted throughout this paper. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been used as a case study to highlight how disasters are still “gendered”; it opens up space for further research on the topic.FindingsEven though women are increasingly recognised as agents of positive change in prevention, mitigation and post-disaster efforts, very little is done at the policy and implementation levels to include their experiences and benefit from them. There is an urgent need for systemic, gender-aware changes at socio-economic and political levels so that hazards may be prevented from turning into disasters by reducing the vulnerability of populations.Originality/valueThe importance of this research lies in its interdisciplinary approach and the integration of three fields of study disaster management, feminist/gender studies and decolonising knowledge production. The attempt is to analyse the interdependence of these fields of study to understand the lacunae in planning and implementation of disaster management policies, and to pave the way for further research by way of this integration.

Trust in disaster resilience

“…Grassroots knowledge is often devalued, ignored, or even derided. Shazana Andrabi (2022) has argued that a Western-centric approach to disaster is unable to produce effective policies, especially in the Global South; and we agree with her on the necessity to decolonize disaster knowledge while stressing the gendered dimension of disasters.…”

Enhancing community resilience to climate change disasters: Learning experience within and from sub‐Saharan black immigrant communities in western Canada

“…Decolonial phenomenology allowed us to explore the phenomenon of climate change from the point of view of those experiencing it (Connelly, 2010). Using a decolonial phenomenology framework created the space for centering the social context of immigrants and equity in capacity and resilience‐building strategies (Andrabi, 2022). As Pyles (2016) observed, the marginalization of other worldviews in disaster resilience‐building activities emerges from the fact that disaster recovery is often understood from a Eurocentric and capitalist worldview.…”

Assessing equity in disaster risk governance in Brazil and Colombia

“…Several commentators (e.g. Andrabi, 2022; Khan et al ., 2022) point to inequities in scientific disaster risk knowledge production. In the Latin American context in particular, Macías (2022) points to the differences in concepts and framings that constitute knowledge systems for DRG.…”