Resilience by stealth: a transdisciplinary proposal for the integration of creativity and disaster risk

Disaster threats pose increasingly significant risks across social sectors and geographies, impacting global communities with greater complexity. Consequently, there exists an imperative for innovation to create appropriate approaches to understand, plan for, and respond to disasters.

In the search for innovative approaches and against the background of increasing complex disasters creativity remains understudied in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) approaches. This study proposes that Arts Based Creativity (ABC) be better incorporated into DRR activities through transdisciplinary integration supported by Social Creative Risk Taking (SCRT). The thesis details the role disaster creativity plays in strengthening community capital and building resilience, including the creation and strengthening of social infrastructure and the development of more resilient Social Ecological Systems, and proposes that creative capital be considered in the disaster management lexicon alongside other forms of capital. This alternative approach underlines the endemic capacity of symbolic ritual and ABC as an intrinsic and systemic community resilience capacity and therefore a critical DRR tool.

The philosophical worldview of this study is informed by an acceptance of multiple meanings, sociological and historical constructions, and, ultimately, seeks to contribute to new theoretical propositions. That is, the research approach, design, and output are all framed within the broader philosophical tenets of a constructivist worldview. Qualitative research activities are conducted via semi structured interviews with key practitioners. The necessity of exploring innovative risk reduction approaches based on the globally embedded cultural capacity of Arts Based Creativity is established. This proposition is tested against three disaster creativity case studies led by prominent Australian musicians, and the validity as a DRR approach is explored and tested.

The findings demonstrate that interrelationships between the two disciplines enjoy significant scope for enhancement, and the research identifies the capacity for Creative Enterprise to enhance community resilience. The enquiry consequently proposes a transdisciplinary collaboration to realise a valid and important intersection between the two areas. Taking a transdisciplinary approach, a model of creative processes is adapted to include SCRT. This is then instituted into the disaster life cycle to demonstrate points where creativity can intersect with disaster planning.

The development of this transdisciplinary approach is unique, particularly in consideration of the potential for pre disaster ABC development and in the treatment of ABC as a multifaceted expression of an endemic community resilience capability. Therefore, this research offers a novel approach to a critically underexplored dimension of community resilience and a meaningful contribution to the knowledge base of the disaster management discipline.