UNDERSTANDING EACH OTHER. THE CHALLENGE OF TEAMWORK AMONG RESEARCHERS FROM MULTIPLE DISCIPLINES AND COMMUNICATION WITH COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY DISASTERS

Disaster resilience research requires collaboration between researchers of different disciplines and communication with communities, who have experienced disasters. Understanding each others’ perspective underpins both successful multidisciplinary research and collaboration with those, who are outside the sphere of research, but importantly, who have been affected by disasters. The achievement of sharing and taking perspectives between research team members and between researchers and the community is almost a discipline within itself—a discipline of learning. How do we learn from each other and achieve a deeper understanding of ourselves in a timely manner, while working in collaborative, multidisciplinary teams and in collaboration with communities? This presentation will present some of the common challenges faced by team members and will outline a conceptual framework of scaffolding to facilitate and expedite improved understanding of multiple perspectives.