About
We seek to establish ourselves as a globally recognised centre of excellence for the study, monitoring, and management of crises in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world.
Crises result from the intersection between the natural world and society, engulfing societies in complex interacting social, environmental, engineering, financial, and political system failures. A crisis resulting from a natural disaster is not merely natural, but also depends upon how those disasters impact society because of weaknesses in physical and social infrastructure, often a combination of multiple factors.
Natural hazards can lead to larger crises than the initial hazard caused, depending on how the crisis is managed during and after the immediate hazard. Such crises can be sudden-onset phenomena and difficult to predict, or expose deep-seated inequalities in access to power, resources or voice. As such, they are markers of dysfunctionality.
Furthermore, what makes crises so intractable is that their solutions lie beyond the scope of conventional single- discipline problem-solving techniques.
Our mission
The mission of the Centre is to articulate, analyse, frame, and – most importantly – devise strategies, modes of engagement, and ways of governing that address the root causes of crisis and build resilience to future societal risks in a manner that is democratic, just, and inclusive.
Our engagement with these challenges will cut through traditional disciplinary boundaries.