Disaster Governance from the Global South: Local Institutions, Inequality, and Everyday Resilience

Disaster governance in the Global South is often shaped by uneven institutional capacity, fragmented authority, resource constraints, and deep social inequalities. Yet local governments, communities, civil society organizations, faith-based groups, and informal networks continue to develop practical forms of resilience that are often underrecognized in mainstream disaster studies. This session invites papers that examine how disaster risk reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery are governed in Global South contexts, with attention to the roles of local institutions, community leadership, informal systems, and marginalized groups.

We welcome empirical, theoretical, and comparative papers that explore how communities navigate state limitations, donor-driven programs, climate risks, and post-disaster reconstruction. Papers may examine local disaster risk reduction and management systems, participatory governance, community-based monitoring, informal settlements, indigenous knowledge, decentralization, accountability, and the politics of resilience. The session aims to foreground Southern theories and lived experiences that can expand disaster sociology beyond technocratic and Northern-centered frameworks.