Reframing Disaster Justice: Conceptual Provocations, Practical Insights, and Research Directions

Abstract

As we articulated in the introduction to the first installment of this two-part special issue, our aim is to offer a space that provokes a reflection and articulation of disaster justice praxis to generate conceptual, empirical, and practical insights across various Philippine contexts. In this second installment, we present several thematic threads emerging from the three research articles and the reflective conversations with disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) practitioners. These themes include (1) enriching disaster justice praxis and tackling issues around “justice gaps”; (2) interrogating initiatives to “shift the power” and localize DRRM interventions; and (3) revisiting the role of academia in promoting disaster justice and charting research directions. Besides reaffirming the ethical, political, and cultural imperatives of disaster governance, the intricate weave of these analytical strands reveals the importance of broadening the conceptual horizon of disaster justice to foreground the emotional, epistemological, and intersectional dimensions of “justice gaps” in various disaster contexts.

KEYWORDS: DISASTER JUSTICE • CARE • PLACE-BASED KNOWLEDGES • EMPATHY • LOCALIZATION