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Communication initiatives and the socio-cultural construction of disaster risk in a riverine community in Infanta, Quezon, Philippines
Dissertation Abstract:
Natural disasters and climate variability pose insurmountable challenges to sustainable human development because they shake the structure of social systems and the built environment. Contrary to existing literature, risk is not a neutral concept. Natural disasters such as floods and cyclones are socially and culturally constructed and perceived by people differently. This paper highlighted the value of integrating the sociocultural construction in risk communication for local and regional-specific Disaster Risk Reduction and Management. It adopted a social constructivist approach because it is concerned with understanding the collective social constructions of meaning and knowledge that are determined by social and cultural processes. Purposeful sampling was employed in Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews. Textual analysis revealed that chronic flooding is a permissible and negotiated disaster risk where people acknowledge that flooding is embedded in their identity as a riverine community. While information from media and early warning signals are important sources of disaster information, the community heavily relied on local prognosis as a metric for disaster risk. In sum, individuals are never to be separated arbitrarily from their social and cultural surroundings. Disaster risk communication and management must consider the underlying sociocultural factors that determine this nature.