Surviving the first 72 hours - Megaurban disaster response in times of limited statehood

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Frauke Kraas
• Subject Area: Human Geography
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 247189623

Megacities as highly complex anthropogenic systems are prone to significant natural and human risks. They pose a grand challenge for risk- and disaster-related governance as well as disaster management, particularly during the phases of response and recovery. The high variety of informal structures and processes which in megacities in developing and emerging economies in many fields complement or even substitute governmental functions entirely, demands reactions that differ from those employed in the so-called industrialized nations. Informal structures and processes, especially those among the affected population, play a decisive - but so far barely understood ¬¬- role of necessity in the course of self-organization, because according to experience governmental disaster response only sets in with a crucial time delay of about 72 hours, if at all. The envisaged research aims at deepening the understanding of the role of informal structures and processes during these critical first 72 hours of disaster response, thereby making it more tangible for theory building in (international) disaster management and risk- and disaster-related governance. Up until now those “non-western” forms of operation have widely been neglected in theories and instruments of the respective scientific fields and good practices that have been tested in the western world are commonly being transferred without specific adaptation. A deeper, empirically based understanding of self-organization in the critical first hours and days after the onset of a hazard that triggers a disaster is also indispensable in the context of resilience building. An equivalence functionalist analysis of the structures and processes of the first 72 hours of disaster response to past flooding events in Jakarta/ Indonesia forms the basis of the envisaged research. The juxtaposition of functionally equivalent structures and processes will allow for “new” forms of operation and eventually “new” actors to be identified. On-site data acquisition will be carried out by means of qualitative research methodology. Participative methods and expert interviews are at the core of the intended method mix.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants