Leveraging Post-Disaster Windows of Opportunities for Change towards Sustainability: A Framework

Katja Brundiers and Hallie C. Eakin
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Katja Brundiers: School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 875502, Tempe, AZ 85287-5502, USA
Hallie C. Eakin: School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 875502, Tempe, AZ 85287-5502, USA

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: Disasters are catalysts for change: they are increasingly recognized as offering opportunities to direct and navigate change towards aspired outcomes, such as sustainable development goals. However, we know little about how to leverage the opportunities created by disasters to achieve sustainability objectives. Learning from existing case studies is challenging, partly because there is no framework that integrates concepts of change from both sustainability science and disaster recovery literatures. This study develops a unified analytical framework to facilitate the documentation and analysis of case studies of sustainability transitions following disasters. Our aim is to enhance the potential for theory-building, and to draw lessons that can be used to help leverage opportunities presented by disasters in the future. We apply the framework to available empirical cases and identify specific conditions, resources, social relations and constraints that affect disaster-to-sustainability transitions. Our expectation is that this framework will serve professionals and researchers in the fields of sustainable development and disaster mitigation to enhance the effectiveness of their research and applied activities.

Keywords: change agents; development; disaster recovery; opportunity; sustainability transitions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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