The development and use of Community Engagement Theory to inform readiness interventions for natural hazard events

Abstract

Readiness or preparedness can help reduce the risk posed by future hazard events and allow for effective post-event response and recovery. Given the importance of readiness, a key question is, "How can readiness be facilitated?". Community Engagement Theory (CET), developed from over 20 years of research in and across several countries, can contribute to offering answers to this question. The theory suggests that if people believe their personal actions can mitigate risk (outcome expectancy), then they are more likely to engage with others to collectively identify and formulate their risk management needs and strategies (community participation and collective efficacy). The CET continues by proposing that if people perceive their needs as having been met through their relationship with civic agencies (empowerment), they are more likely to trust those agencies and the information they provide and use their information to make readiness decisions. The CET began its development in the city of Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand and has been tested across diverse hazards with multi-cultural populations, in culturally diverse countries, and in both pre- and post disaster contexts. Cross-cultural analyses suggest that CET constitutes a universal theory for understanding how to develop readiness irrespective of the hazard or country under consideration. Given its universality, the theory can be used to guide readiness interventions, with the proviso that these are adapted to allow for the specificities of different localities and cultural settings. This paper documents the work undertaken to create, refine, and apply the CET in national and international contexts and discusses its utility in developing natural hazard readiness, with a specific Aotearoa New Zealand focus.