Campos, Jacob (2025) Digital Democratic Innovations in Inclusive Disaster Governance: A Systematic Literature Review. Bachelor thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).
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Abstract
Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in disaster frequency and severity due to climate change. This has created heightened urgency for society to develop inclusive disaster governance processes that engage marginalized communities. While international frameworks such as the Sendai Framework highlight participatory approaches to disaster governance, marginalized communities continue to be systematically excluded from disaster risk governance processes. Over 50 relevant academic studies were analysed, and a gap in the literature was revealed: DDIs have gained momentum in general governance but there is virtually no research addressing the intersection of digital democratic innovations and inclusive disaster governance. The systematic review applied a multi-dimensional analytical framework to examine the different DDI implementations, structural barriers to inclusion, accessibility of the technology, enabling institutions, and mechanism of participation. The systematic review revealed that digital democratic innovations have extensively advanced citizen engagement in a variety of governance contexts. In contrast, disaster governance currently continues to be characterised mainly as a hierarchical/top-down process and continues to systematically exclude marginalized communities, often due to structural, technological, socioeconomic, and institutional barriers. The research identified several opportunities to leverage DDIs to address the inclusion gap through more accessible digital interfaces, participatory decision-making tools, and communication mechanisms based within the community. This study aims to advance academic knowledge about a previously mostly unstudied relationship between the concepts of digital democracy and disaster governance. The results provide an important conceptual basis for further empirical research and evidence-based policy development in future research, policy development, and practice. The findings suggest that DDIs could potentially be transformative to disaster governance and facilitate engagement with marginalized communities, as well as to create new innovative pathways for engagement provided that researchers and practitioners are committed to understanding and addressing digital divides, existing power asymmetries, and contextual barriers that exist in both digital and physical spaces to ensure that forms of inclusivity are truly inclusive.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Name supervisor: | Schulz, K.A. |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2025 11:45 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jul 2025 11:45 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/633 |
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