Insider community participation in recovery from natural disaster, 2009 to 2021: scoping the evidence

Abstract

Much of the policy and literature in disaster studies extoll the virtues of communities participating in self recovery. The empirical evidence, however, is often thin and self-referential. In an Australian context, there exists a need to ascertain ‘what is known’ about how affected community members can best participate after disasters and what, if anything, can be applied to communities and for policy makers. To address this, a scoping review was conducted of 34 papers published between 2009 and 2021 that detailed studies into how different affected or ‘insider’ communities responded to ‘natural’ disasters using geographic, governmental and disaster contexts. While there is a dearth of empirical research on insider community participation (particularly in Australia) and significant problems with current hierarchies of participation, there is evidence that, when harnessed appropriately, insider participation has significant potential to improve recovery outcomes.