This project aims to transform the political capabilities of marginalized groups in Nepal and Thailand, so that the integration of development and disaster risk planning occurs in ways that provides them with control over their environment.
This UKRI GCRF Collective Programme funded project brings together scholars and practitioners in different disciplines from the UK, Nepal and Thailand to facilitate joint learning between local research capacity and those from, or working with, least powerful communities in order to generate new knowledge and new alliances of science and people. The collaboration will draw on critical insights into:
The team inform the process by offering analytical tools focused on different aspects of the urban context: the systemic production of risk; governance and accountability; and physical infrastructure design.
New tools will be developed and applied in Nepal and Thailand to reveal two critical urban phenomena. First, how narratives of risk and resilience rely on and reinforce expertise, infrastructure and institutions, sustaining inequality in access to services. And second, how the complexity of material and political relations in urban systems creates risk of failures in service provision with uneven impacts on residents.
The tools will enable those working with marginal communities to identify strategic alliances and entry-points for engagement, opening spaces for dialogue in the city that generate new knowledge and narratives, securing decision making power for marginalized groups and anchoring resilience in the complexity of urban risk creation.
Five phases of research and action are to be undertaken to:
This project is funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Global Challenges Research Fund. The GCRF Collective Programme brings together a wide range of researchers and experts from across the UK and developing countries to:
The Programme is an investment of £147 million across 18 funding opportunities. It is designed to enhance the overall impact across UKRI’s six strategic GCRF challenge portfolios in:
Design and development by Soapbox.