Building age-inclusive disaster risk reduction: Insights among geographically mobile young adults in regional Australia

Abstract

Community centred disaster risk reduction (DRR) is viewed as the gold standard, linking local networks, skills, capacities and knowledges together with government and nongovernment supports. However, despite the best of intentions young adults still experience exclusion due in part to adult centrism because initiatives are largely curated by adults. While research has sought to address this bias, outmigration by young adults at key life-stages creates an additional barrier. This paper identifies the need to pair life-stage with DRR objectives to improve understandings of what counts as ‘inclusion’ and ‘participation’. Interviews (N=14) with young adults aged 18–30 in a bushfire affected area of Australia were conducted three years after disaster. Findings suggest participation is an essentially contested concept among adults and young adults, leading to tension and entrenched age-based exclusion. Further, young adult’s geographic mobility, seen as a rite of passage, compounds exclusion, despite it developing their maturity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the conditions for creating age-inclusive DRR, including the need for social infrastructure catering to young adults and the importance of communities acknowledging young adults’ diverse, age-specific interests.