Abstract
A discussion on disasters in contemporary society cannot be excluded from how disasters intensify existing inequalities. This discourse has pioneered altering the perception of a disaster from misfortune to injustice, as disasters lead to uneven impacts. With the acknowledgement of these uneven impacts of disasters, the need for fairness and justice has been endorsed. ‘Disaster justice’ as a concept evolved to complement this narrative of how disasters increase pre-existinginequalities. While disaster justice is a novel concept with no universally accepted definition, the existing studies on disaster justice acknowledge it as a moral claim of society and government to reduce the uneven impacts of disasters. Despite the increasing uneven impacts of disasters in urban, multi-hazard contexts, the knowledge gap reveals that the concept of disaster justice remains under-investigated in these contexts. Hence, the research aims to develop a framework to enhance disaster justice in disaster risk governance to reduce people’s vulnerabilities within urban multi-hazard contexts. Given the need to further explore disaster justice within the Global South context, particularly in its multi-hazardous setting, Sri Lanka was chosen as the study's geographical focus, considering its significant multi-hazard-prone nature. The study employed Strauss and Corbin’s version of the grounded theory strategy to implement the research. The data collection adhered to the canons of grounded theory, where the theoretical sampling method was utilised in data collection. Semi-structured interviews were employed as the data collection technique. The interview findings were further supplemented by document review and field observations. The data was collected from several expert categories from local, national and international contexts and community members based in urban multi-hazard contexts. The data analysis was conducted based on the standard coding process relevant to the selected version of grounded theory, and the findings went through open, axial and selective coding processes. The findings suggest that the community faces several challenges that lead to uneven impacts of disasters in urban multi-hazard contexts. Although various community-based and administrative led interventions exist to address these challenges, barriers in the governance process hinder the successful development of a just environment in disaster contexts. Hence, based on these findings, the study proposes a framework to integrate disaster justice into disaster risk governance, incorporating seven core principles, disaster justice requirements, and strategies under the clusters of community, institutional, and legal and policy.
| Date of Award | 13 Apr 2026 |
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| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Michael Ginger (Main Supervisor) & Dilanthi Amaratunga (Co-Supervisor) |