Technology in Disaster Prevention and Management: Innovation, Governance and (concealed) Knowledge
Résumé
Public policy preventing and managing man-made or natural disasters must confront the urgency of the measures to be taken, the vast scale of the negative effects on individuals and the environment, and the seriousness of the material damages. Institutions at multiple level are urged to anticipate, manage and rebuild, and to include citizens in participatory procedures in order to replace top-down crisis 'government' with less hierarchical and more inclusive crisis 'governance'. Technological devices and systems are funded, designed, tested, and implemented, leading often to innovations, collaboration between institutions and private companies that blur boundaries between the public and the private sector, and the production of knowledge or, in some cases, agnotology.