Social appropriation of knowledge for disaster risk management: Lessons learned from an experience with communities in the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia

The social appropriation of science and technology is a process of knowledge exchange between actors: scientists, communities, technicians, institutions, and others. On this project executed by Maloka, as science museum, the objective was to reach some communities from the region of Cundinamarca, Colombia, through the exchange of knowledge about disaster risk management, in order to promote changes in the way of perceiving and acting against risk. A co-creation process was carried out to design, together with local experts and communities, a traveling exhibition and an educational kit that reaches the whole region, including remote places. This aimed of strengthening disaster risk management by local communities. Meanwhile, the process was qualitatively systematized through interviews with communities. We observed potential changes that were achieved by citizens participants in the implementation of the project and how the communities appropriated knowledge about disaster risk. We described how they recognized strategies to mitigate and reduce risk and the tools they acquired to act against the disaster risk.