A roundtable "Participation and Citizen Mobilization in Risk and Disaster Management" as well as a conference-debate with JC Gaillard (Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland) "The Invention of Disaster: Power and Knowledge within Discourses on Hazard and Vulnerability"
This seminar addresses an epistemological paradox too often ignored within much research on disasters associated with natural phenomena. It's frequently taken for granted that these disasters are social constructs. However, this same research relies on theoretical frameworks, concepts, and methods considered universal and applied to understanding suffering within extremely diverse societies and cultures.
Informations :
Location :
Auditorium de l’IPGP
1 rue Jussieu
75005 Paris
17/12/2025 10h à 16h
Quels renouvellements des études des catastrophes ?
Le 17 décembre 2025
DR
This epistemological paradox is rooted in Enlightenment heritage; namely the hegemony of the dialectic opposing nature and society or, in disaster studies jargon, hazard and vulnerability. This heritage is now contested, and the growing discomfort felt by an increasing number of researchers has crystallized around the manifesto and accord on disaster studies calling for rethinking disaster research. However, this manifesto doesn't offer epistemological framework(s) for plural research more attentive to local realities' diversity beyond the West. This seminar engages in this path and draws on Edouard Glissant's Tout-Monde thinking to open an epistemological field where a plurality of non-hierarchized and non-normative perspectives on disasters would coexist.
JC Gaillard is Ahorangi o te Matawhenua / Professor of Geography at Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland and associate researcher at the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute. His work focuses on power and knowledge in disaster research. It also addresses inclusion in disaster risk reduction, particularly for cultural and gender minorities, detainees, and children. Another aspect of his research concerns the Philippines and particularly the study of the Kapampangan world. More details at: https://jcgaillard.wordpress.com
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Roundtable - Participation and Citizen Mobilization in Risk and Disaster Management
- JC Gaillard (Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland), A critical review of participation policies in disaster management
- Nils Kessel (University of Strasbourg), What is sustainable in disaster risk reduction? Issues around participation initiatives and inclusive governance
- Agnès Deboulet (University Paris 8), Participatory research and research co-production to address urban inequalities: from Cairo to São Paulo via Marseille
Discussants: Soraya Boudia (CNRS / Paris Cité University) and Mina Kleiche (IRD)
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Conference-debate with JC Gaillard (Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland) - The Invention of Disaster: Power and Knowledge within Discourses on Hazard and Vulnerability
Discussants: Nathalie Jas (INRAE) and Duygu Kastogan (Izmir Katip Celebi)