Adaptive Knowledge Sharing in Turbulent Times: Urban Disaster Risk and Knowledge Management

Knowledge management in development discourse has been largely shaped by the emergence and complexity of modern times. The increasing number and intensity of catastrophes as a result of a changing climate render a new social order with high complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Designing knowledge sharing strategies can be informed by complexity theory and its application to organizational environments in enabling a framework for strengthening institutional adaptive capacity. This chapter investigates adaptive knowledge sharing and interlinks urban disaster risk reduction and management in the context of case research from Typhoon Ketsana that hit Marikina City, Metro Manila, the Philippines in 2009. An in-depth examination of knowledge sharing in terms of complexity—channels, behavior and locality, and multiplicity—is looked at with reference to social networks and strategies to effectively mitigate risk and strengthen community disaster resilience. Using social network analysis, four linkages are identified: disaster prevention and hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness, disaster response, and recovery and rehabilitation. Categorical findings on adaptive knowledge sharing are presented.