The constellation of actors and the communication of knowledge in the management of natural hazards in Switzerland
2012
Bischof, N. | Eppler, M., Universitaet St. Gallen, St. Gallen (Switzerland). Institut fuer Medien- und Kommunikationsmanagment | Kienholz, H.
Switzerland invests about CHF 2.9 billion a year in protection from natural hazards. In order to coordinate this protection and to plan strategies, the National Platform for Natural Hazards (Planat) has formulated a vision and a strategy for dealing with natural hazards with the purpose of implementing risk-based planning at a local level. This implementation process involves many protagonists as well as a great deal of expert knowledge and practical experience and it requires joint action. It can therefore be understood as a complex process of communication. Our research project goes into the questions of how this communication process works, which actors become involved and, at the end of the day, to what extent risk-based planning has already been implemented at a local level. In order to do this a transdisciplinary research approach was chosen. In this article we give an account of the results with regard to the constellation of actors. Whilst in general in communication analysis all three dimensions _ contents, participants and sequence of events _ are taken into consideration, we focussed in particular on the participants and in so doing investigated their roles and attitudes. The results of our qualitative survey demonstrate the interpretation of roles as well as the present constellation of actors in the management of natural hazards in Switzerland. The results confirm three findings: 1) that the transmission of knowledge is triggered off and fostered by exceptional occurrences and that 2) joint action and 3) the shared use of tools also lend their support to the transfer of knowledge.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station