Abstract
In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on achieving convergence in disaster research, policy, and programs to reduce disaster losses and enhance social well-being. However, there remain considerable gaps in understanding “how do we actually do convergence?” In this article, we present three case studies from across geographies—New South Wales in Australia, and North Carolina and Oregon in the United States; and sectors of work—community, environmental, and urban resilience, to critically examine what convergence entails and how it can enable diverse disciplines, people, and institutions to reduce vulnerability to systemic risks in the twenty-first century. We identify key successes, challenges, and barriers to convergence. We build on current discussions around the need for convergence research to be problem-focused and solutions-based, by also considering the need to approach convergence as ethic, method, and outcome. We reflect on how convergence can be approached as an ethic that motivates a higher order alignment on “why” we come together; as a method that foregrounds “how” we come together in inclusive ways; and as an outcome that highlights “what” must be done to successfully translate research findings into the policy and public domains.
Highlights
Since 2005, a number of national and international policies have articulated why the grand challenge of our times will be to reduce vulnerability to social, economic, and environmental disasters (National Science and Technology Council 2005; United Nations 2009, 2015; National Research Council 2012)
There remain considerable gaps in understanding ‘‘how do we do convergence?’’ What does convergence entail and how can it enable diverse disciplines, people, and institutions to address systemic risks in the twenty-first century? In this article, we argue that the process of coming together can no longer be left to happenstance, or the leadership of a few individuals and institutions
We present three case studies to concretely show how convergence can be approached as ethic, method, and outcome, across different kinds of disaster research, policy, and program efforts
Summary
Since 2005, a number of national and international policies have articulated why the grand challenge of our times will be to reduce vulnerability to social, economic, and environmental disasters (National Science and Technology Council 2005; United Nations 2009, 2015; National Research Council 2012). We consider how convergence can be approached as an ethic that motivates a higher order alignment on ‘‘why’’ we come together—across disciplines, scales, and geographies, with diverse people, communities, and institutions; as a method that foregrounds ‘‘how’’ we come together in inclusive ways to formulate research and collaborative projects that address ongoing processes of disaster risk creation; and as an outcome that highlights ‘‘what’’ must be done to successfully translate findings from the physical and social sciences into the policy and public domains at a time when disaster risk science is highly politicized or altogether ignored (Lakhina 2019)
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