A proposal for unpacking the politics of knowledge production in disaster reduction education

The Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction (2015-2030) states that education is an important way to build resilience of people and communities. Further, reducing inequality should be a goal of disaster risk reduction (DRR) politics. Disaster reduction education (DRE), like the ideas resilience and DRR from which it stems, is not an innocent notion. The production of knowledge and its implementation via DRE are inherently political. With this in mind, I discuss recent work in DRE and suggest that science and technology studies (STS) is a helpful ally in examining the significance of DRE for communities. I first discuss the relationship between resilience, DRR, and DRE. I then review recent case studies from the growing field of scholarship in DRE; each of which brings into question (a) the politics of knowledge production and (b) uneven relationships across scales that shape the ways in which education for disaster risk is implemented. Next, I explore how scholarship from STS is useful to think through ways to further unpack the politics of expertise woven into DRE. I conclude by stating that if we are to consider possibilities for DRE practices that increase equality, we must first explore the power relations that shape DRE. STS engagements with expertise will help in the process.