Browsing by Author "Das M"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Exploring communication practices that promote community participation and collective action for reducing disaster risks in New Zealand
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd on behalf of ODI Global, 2025-10-01) Das M; Becker J; Doyle EEH
    Emergency management agencies in New Zealand are increasingly engaging with communities to promote civic participation and collective action for reducing disaster risks. Utilising a mixed-methods approach, this paper explores the communication practices that support these efforts. The qualitative findings reveal that emergency management agencies, different government organisations, community-based groups, and local people play a key role in the process. Communicative actions supporting people's participation include scoping and relationship-building activities, awareness-raising events, advertisements and promotions, and community conversations. Based on these findings and guided by communication infrastructure theory, a conceptual map of the communication networks, resources, and processes adopted to promote people's participation and collective action is presented here. The survey results indicate that emergency management agencies are the main communicators promoting people's participation. Interpersonal influence and community conversations are most effective in terms of involving new people. Both the theoretical and practical implications of the study's findings are discussed in this paper.
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    Fostering civic participation and collective actions for disaster risk reduction: Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand case studies
    (Elsevier Ltd., 2024-11-03) Das M; Becker J; Doyle EEH
    This paper explores how community members collaborate with emergency management organizations in the pre-disaster stage and engage in collective actions for reducing disaster risks in their communities. Utilizing four qualitative case studies from New Zealand, we examined how local groups interested in reducing community level disaster risks form, the nature of their collective actions and collaboration with emergency management organizations, their facilitators and barriers and the outcomes of the processes. The findings suggest that people's involvement, collaboration, and collective action in the pre-disaster stage entails participating in programmes administered by emergency management organizations through diverse community groups, informal emergency response teams, and specialized volunteer groups. The two primary goals are to have a group of people ready to provide immediate support in an event by maintaining community response teams and making prior arrangements that support people to spontaneously volunteer in an emergency, through community emergency hub approach. These groups engage in tasks such as creating community response plans, maintaining resources, and fostering communication and social capital. The factors facilitating these efforts include hazard awareness, community conversations, institutional support and active DRR organizations, clear objectives, skilled facilitators, and ensuring community solutions are supported. However, currently, community involvement in the pre-disaster stage is narrowly focused on improving response outcomes, lacking a broader perspective of addressing developmental and environmental issues that create risks. They are also rooted in the idea of a solidaristic community and rely on social capital. We discuss the implications of the current practices and the way forward.
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    ‘One big team working together’ - Shifting narratives to encourage civic participation and collective action in disaster preparedness
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2025-02-15) Das M; Becker J; Doyle EEH
    Disaster risks cannot be reduced by individual efforts alone and necessitate community participation and collective action. However, communicating and encouraging collective action is difficult. Existing studies show that stories and narratives are useful to convey complex less-understood phenomena, like disasters, in a comprehendible and relatable manner. As such, this paper explores existing disaster narratives and aims to understand how they encourage civic participation and collective action for reducing disaster risks. The findings show that the framing of disasters in mass media narratives are unlikely to encourage collective action as they do not emphasize citizen's agency and efficacy in reducing disaster risks. However, in the narratives shared at the local level between emergency management agencies and community members, there is currently a shift towards emphasizing community agency, efficacy, and responsibilities in reducing disaster risks. Four dominant themes are identified in these narratives: reframing the concept of heroes, promoting connection and care, emphasizing collective efficacy and collective responsibility. While the narratives are beneficial, they also cause some tensions, such as, confusion arising from lingering response-centric narratives; frustration around the collective responsibility narratives; and resistance to the current narratives as they are perceived as attempts by emergency management agencies to transfer emergency management responsibilities to people. The implications of the findings and the future directions are presented.
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    The communication of volcano information in New Zealand–a narrative review
    (Taylor and Francis Group on behalf of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2025-02-13) Das M; Becker JS; Doyle EEH; Charlton D; Clive MA; Krippner J; Vinnell LJ; Miller C; Stewart C; Gabrielsen H; Potter SH; Leonard GS; Johnston DM; Tapuke K; Fournier N; McBride SK
    Communication of volcano information is critical for effective volcanic risk management. A variety of information is communicated to inform decisions and guide actions for planning, preparedness, and response. Such information needs to be reliable, and fit-for-purpose across different stages of volcanic activity (quiescence, unrest, short or long-term eruptive stages, and the post-eruptive stage). However, an understanding of communication across these different stages of volcanic activity remains limited. We undertook a narrative review of New Zealand literature to explore what information is communicated about volcanoes, across which stages of activity and by whom. Results highlight that NZ literature only documents certain aspects of volcano information and communication, specifically regarding certain locations, stages of volcanic activity (i.e. quiescence or unrest), or hazards. Literature gaps exist regarding volcano communication during unrest and post-eruptive stages, as well as how volcano information evolves between these phases, and how decision-makers use such information. Additional work would be useful to document existing examples of volcano information for different stages of activity. Further research could help in understanding the information needs of decision-makers during each of these stages to improve information and communication.