This group will build accounts of ways social science disaster researchers have moved their work into varied public and policy arenas. We hope to document many modes of translation and engagement, pointing to diverse pathways other scholars can consider. The collection will include oral histories with disaster researchers, documents and other artifacts they produced, news about their work, and other material that conveys what engaged disaster research looks like in motion. Some materials in the exhibit will have restricted access. To request access, first request membership in the Disaster-STS platform at http://disaster-sts-network.org/
This group was created as part of an ongoing research project, which will 1) document and analyze how social science disaster researchers have moved their research findings and expertise into public and policy arenas in different settings over the last two decades; 2) develop an analytic framework for rapid assessment of how disaster research can be moved quickly into public arenas as future disasters unfold in particular contexts; and 3) develop infrastructure to support international collaboration among disaster researchers, and movement of their research findings and expertise into public and policy arenas. Theoretically, the research will examine how scientific research (on disaster, in particular) can contribute to the formation of what philosopher John Dewey termed “public problems” (1984 [1927]). The Disaster Research Pathways Analytic (DRPA) Framework developed for this project will have wide applicability in disaster contexts, helping researchers identify many ways their research can move through a social formation and be translated into practice.
