Culture and disaster risk management - citizens’ reactions and opinions during Citizen Summit in Frankfurt, Germany

The analyses and results in this document are based on the data collected during the fourth Citizen Summit held in Frankfurt/Germany on June 14th 2017. As the previous three Citizen Summits held in Romania, Malta and Italy, this Citizen Summit was designed as a one-day event combining public information with feedback gathering through different methods of data collection. In the morning session, 42 questions with pre-defined answer options were posed to the audience and collected via an audience response system. In the afternoon session, small moderated group discussions of approximately 1.5 hours duration were held, which followed a detailed set of questions and discussion guidelines, including a short association exercise. All questions and discussions aimed to explore cultural factors in citizens’ attitudes, feelings, and perceptions towards disaster risks, as well as their identification in relation to disaster preparation, response and recovery. In coordination with the Work Package 11 briefs, the definition and design of the questions was based on: 1) Results from Citizen Summits 1 and 2, complementing in particular the data related to risk perception with the aim to build up a comprehensive base for cultural comparison across all six summits; 2) Results from Stakeholder Assemblies 1 and 2, in particular regarding the identification of non-professional (“cultural”) leaders in disaster situations, motivators for improving disaster preparedness, and the role of trust/distrust; 3) Results from Work Package 3, aiming to complement and increase knowledge about citizens’ uptake of mobile phone apps and interest in usage of different features, also in contrast to social media use; 4) Results from Work Package 4, in particular regarding recent research findings in the relationships between perceived disaster preparedness and actual disaster preparedness, and in the ambivalent relationships between trust in authorities and citizens’ personal preparedness; 5) Results from Work Package 7, aiming to complement the research regarding citizen empowerment by exploring trust as a bi-directional relationship between citizens and disaster managers; and 6) Results from Work Package 8, taking into account the role of media in all phases of disaster management. For a detailed overview of all questions asked and topics discussed please see Appendix A. Overall, 105 citizens participated in this Germany event. The total sample shows a relatively even gender and age distribution, which is unsurprising given the target quotas that were requested from the recruiting local market research agency. The comparatively low number of senior citizens aged 65 and above was expected and reflects mobility issues. Participants were asked about three key aspects of experience of disasters and disaster risk perception that could potentially have an impact on how other questions were answered. Two out of three respondents indicated that they themselves, or a close friend or family member, have experienced a disaster, more than half (54%) felt that they were living in an area that is specifically prone to disasters, and 62% answered that they know other people in the area where they live who they think are particularly vulnerable or exposed to disasters. Slight gender differences (as well as age-related differences) were found to be not statistically significant (p>=.05). This report is structured in five main sections: After this introduction, the second section will provide an overview of the different methods applied. The third section, based on the quantitative data collected via the audience response system, presents the results from questions on general disaster risk perceptions, disaster preparedness, behaviours in disaster situations with a particular focus on the use of mobile phone apps and social media, and trust between citizens and different authorities including trust in different social media sources. In the fourth section, based on the qualitative data collected in the ten discussion groups, the analyses will take up the topics introduced in the previous section, focusing first on the role of citizens’ trust in different entities, in particular towards different authorities, “non-professional” leaders, and the media. Furthermore, this section will report on the participating citizens’ attitudes towards improving their disaster preparedness through different measures. In all topics, the analyses seek to identify different cultural aspects which may play a role in an improved disaster preparedness and response. The final section compares and contrasts the results from Sections 3 and 4, draws some tentative conclusions, and identifies topics and issues that should feed into the last round of events in 2018, i.e. the 3rd Stakeholder Assembly, as well as the 5th and 6th Citizen Summits.The project was co-funded by the European Commission within the Horizon2020 Programme (2014-2020).peer-reviewe

Emergency Management and Tourism Stakeholder Responses to Crises: A Global Survey

This paper examines the contested area of the responsibility for destinations and tourists, within emergency settings. It incorporates a Delphi-Scenario technique to facilitate a structured discussion of emergency management for different destination stakeholders. The Delphi exercise engaged 123 senior international stakeholders, from 9 different industry sectors, across 34 countries to provide a global perspective. The study’s principal focus is on the notion of emergency management, to identify the challenges that stakeholders would face within a disaster scenario. The exercise asked stakeholders to identify with whom the responsibility rests for 18 distinct disaster-related activities. The study proposes a responsibility allocation building-block framework which could help speed up the emergency management responses by ”knowing who is going to do what” with a particular focus on dealing with international tourists as a community in a disaster zone

How did cross-cultural dynamics impact decision-making during the revision, endorsement, and implementation of the United Nation’s International Search and Rescue Guidelines? And how was cross-cultural bias overcome?

The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) Guidelines are an internationally accepted document that provides guidance to countries affected by sudden-onset disasters causing large-scale structural collapse, as well as international Urban Search and Rescue teams responding in the affected countries. This structure provides a process for preparedness, cooperation and coordination of the national and international participants. The purpose of my research is to examine how cross-cultural dynamics impacted decision-making during the revision, endorsement, and implementation of the United Nation’s International Search and Rescue Guidelines and how cultural bias was overcome. I spent six months working directly with INSARAG helping with the revision and editing of the guidelines and I interviewed two members of the INSARAG Secretariat. My analysis (formed in conjunction with personal observation and theories from Anne Rød and Fredholm and Göransson) show that while there is variance in cross-cultural dynamics, it can be mitigated by a process of trust building and by creating a culture within a group that is accepting of cultural differences. The newly revised guidelines were endorsed at the INSARAG Steering Group meeting in February 2015 and implemented into the field. They were then used in April 2015 during the earthquake response in Nepal

Promoting Global Empathy and Engagement through Real-Time Problem-Based Simulations: Outcomes from a Policymaking Simulation set in Post-Earthquake Haiti

We introduce a real-time problem-based simulation in which students are tasked with drafting policy to address the challenge of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in post-earthquake Haiti from a variety of stakeholder perspectives. Students who participated in the simulation completed a quantitative survey as a pretest/posttest on global empathy, political awareness, and civic engagement, and provided qualitative data through post-simulation focus groups. The simulation was run in four courses across three campuses in a variety of instructional settings from 2013 to 2015. An analysis of the data reveals that scores on several survey items measuring global empathy and political/civic engagement increased significantly, while qualitative student comments corroborated the results. This format of a real-time problem-based policymaking simulation is readily adaptable to other ongoing and future global crises using the framework provided in this paper

E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Century

E-learning and digital education approaches are evolving and changing the landscape of teaching and learning at all levels of education throughout the world. Innovation of emerging learning technologies is assisting e-learning and digital education to meet the needs of the 21st century. Due to the digital transformation of everyday practice, the process of learning and education has become more self-paced and accessible at any time from anywhere. The new generations of digital natives are growing up with a set of skills through their engagement with the digital world. In this context, this book includes a collection of chapters to facilitate continuous improvements including flexibility and accessibility in e-learning and digital education by exploring the challenges and opportunities of innovative approaches through the lenses of current theories, policies, and practices

CSRS: Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies

Brochure publication development by Graseilah Coolidge. Editing by Matt Vaccaro, Nick Tomb and Roseann Johnson

Diplomacy as Pedagogy, Pedagogy as Diplomacy: Diplomatic Simulations, Constructivism, and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda

Diplomatic simulations, or simulations of international or regional organizations (i.e. Model United Nations), present great opportunities that extend beyond the pedagogical value suggested by limited literature. Operationalizing constructivism as both a pedagogical and international relations theory illuminates the implications of diplomatic simulations on participants, diplomacy, and multidisciplinary research. To accomplish this, this exploratory study first performs a thorough literature review to synthesize relevant works. An exploratory content analysis is then employed on documents in a Model United Nations simulation to investigate its utility in accomplishing the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, particularly Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education. Findings suggest that while diplomatic simulations develop skills and knowledge of international relations, they also impact actual diplomacy by disrupting ethnocentrism, exporting political agents, and norm diffusion. Diplomatic simulations can also be used as nontraditional data sources and research methods, providing a unique solution to resource-constrained research endeavors