Understanding how to enhance multi-actor learning: An investigation into the Scottish Disaster Risk Reduction Context
type: CreativeWork
description: The challenges posed by a rapidly changing climate, associated uncertainties and complexities are leading to a greater recognition of the need to accelerate and enhance how learning occurs, in the field of climate change and associated practice. Whilst learning has an essential role in addressing environmental challenges, there is a lack of tools and understanding of processes of learning within current resilience research. Given the increasing need to learn more quickly and more effectively in light of growing challenges, this thesis aimed to explore learning across academic, practical and policy areas in an attempt to understand how learning occurs within the disaster risk reduction (DRR) sector. This research aims to advance perspectives and knowledge in understanding how to enhance multi-actor learning in Disaster Risk Reduction contexts. It has done this by focusing on the complexity of multi-actor learning in the DRR sector in Scotland across two related studies. The first study provides a review of learning processes across Integrated Emergency Management across Scotland. The second study then explores role of learning journeys and the processes which occur within them through the Scottish Borders Climate Resilient Communities (SBCRC) project. A total of 89 in-depth semi structured interviews were completed with participants across different stakeholder groups from both organisations and community settings. This supported the development of a theoretical and methodological innovation through the form of Visually Augmented Elicited Metaphor Analysis (VAEMA) which helps to explore the experience of learning and the wider processes which emerge using the concept learning as a journey. This research therefore provides a rich description through the development of a framework explaining how multi-actor learning both across and within different stakeholder groups occurs. The research finds that learning in DRR contexts relies on varied interactive and social proces…
abstract: The challenges posed by a rapidly changing climate, associated uncertainties and complexities are leading to a greater recognition of the need to accelerate and enhance how learning occurs, in the field of climate change and associated practice. Whilst learning has an essential role in addressing environmental challenges, there is a lack of tools and understanding of processes of learning within current resilience research. Given the increasing need to learn more quickly and more effectively in light of growing challenges, this thesis aimed to explore learning across academic, practical and policy areas in an attempt to understand how learning occurs within the disaster risk reduction (DRR) sector. This research aims to advance perspectives and knowledge in understanding how to enhance multi-actor learning in Disaster Risk Reduction contexts. It has done this by focusing on the complexity of multi-actor learning in the DRR sector in Scotland across two related studies. The first study provides a review of learning processes across Integrated Emergency Management across Scotland. The second study then explores role of learning journeys and the processes which occur within them through the Scottish Borders Climate Resilient Communities (SBCRC) project. A total of 89 in-depth semi structured interviews were completed with participants across different stakeholder groups from both organisations and community settings. This supported the development of a theoretical and methodological innovation through the form of Visually Augmented Elicited Metaphor Analysis (VAEMA) which helps to explore the experience of learning and the wider processes which emerge using the concept learning as a journey. This research therefore provides a rich description through the development of a framework explaining how multi-actor learning both across and within different stakeholder groups occurs. The research finds that learning in DRR contexts relies on varied interactive and social proces…
author: Rao-Williams, Jennifer
language: eng
keywords: Learning, Disaster Risk Reduction, Transformation, Learning Process, Multi-Actor Learning
date published: 2019
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:08:46Z
provider: University of Dundee
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Dundee