‘Resurrection’ of a flood action group through co-learning

This paper examines the ‘resurrection’ of a flood action group following a decade of inactivity, through a ‘co-learning’ lens. Flood action groups play a crucial role in UK flood risk management, yet many struggle to maintain activity, particularly without sustained external funding. This is, in fact, a common challenge in community-based DRR worldwide. While DRR research often prioritises high-impact/low-frequency hazards, ‘small-scale disasters’ are increasingly recognised as equally significant. Selforganisation is often essential for sustainable DRR in resource-constrained contexts. The paper develops a preliminary co-learning framework to analyse the flood action group's revival. While ‘co-learning’ and ‘co-creation’ are widely used in DRR research, the conceptual interrogation of the terms remains underdeveloped. After clarifying the relationship between these concepts, the paper identifies five key characteristics of colearning from the existing literature in the field of education as follows: solidarity, equal power balance, reciprocal learning, new knowledge creation, collective action for social change. These are then applied as a tentative framework in analysing the case. The paper concludes by reflecting on the framework’s limitations but also exploring its potential to advance co-learning research in DRR.