CIDR
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Center for Interdisciplinary Disaster Research

CIDR

Goals and areas of expertise

The Center for Interdisciplinary Disaster Research is a consortium of research groups in the field of disaster research at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. Its goal is to harness the potential of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of technology, business, and education. Our specific expertise covers the following areas:

  • Education in Civil Protection
  • Disaster Management
  • Resilience in Flood Risk Management

Latest news

Conference on "The Normalization of Extreme Contexts: Creatively Co-existing with Crisis"

Last week, the EGOS Conference 2025 took place - an important conference for international scientific exchange in the field of organizational and management research. With great participation and exciting discussions, apl. Prof. Anja Danner-Schröder convened the sub-theme "The Normalization of Extreme Contexts: Creatively Co-existing with Crisis".

The thematic focus was on the question of what it means to live and work in a world that is characterized by simultaneously occurring, persistent and overlapping crises. From "predictable unpredictability" to "polycrisis" - the sub-theme offered space for theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions that dealt with the increasing normalization of extreme contexts on a societal, organizational and individual level.

Among the topics discussed were:

  • How crisis perception and urgency are socially constructed
  • The extent to which political and institutional structures adapt (or not) to permanent crises
  • How organizations and individuals deal with uncertainty, excessive demands or apathy
  • Which new methodological approaches are necessary to adequately research such phenomena

 

The sub-theme impressively demonstrated how relevant and urgent the examination of normalization processes in the context of crises is - not only for research, but also for practice.

We would like to thank all participants for the inspiring exchange!

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Cooperations

Science

  • Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands)
  • Free University of Berlin
  • Geo Research Center Potsdam
  • Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, (United States)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg
  • Medical School Hamburg
  • Free University of Berlin
  • Berlin University of Technology
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway)
  • Mines Tech, Paris (France)
  • RWTH Aachen University
  • Berlin University of Technology
  • Braunschweig University of Technology
  • Dortmund University of Technology
  • Dresden University of Technology
  • Munich University of Technology
  • Umeå University (Sweden)
  • Environmental Research Center Leipzig
  • University of Hamburg
  • Universitae Politehnica Timisoara (Romania)
  • Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain)
  • Université de Lorraine (France)
  • University College London (Great Britain)
  • University of Namibia (Namibia)
  • University of Queensland (Australia)
  • University of Tokyo (Japan)
  • Warwick Business School (Great Britain)
  • et al.

Practice

  • Professional fire departments Kaiserslautern, Magdeburg, Neuwied and others
  • Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance
  • Deutsche Bahn InfraGO
  • German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA)
  • Emschergenossenschaft/Lippeverband
  • Düsseldorf Fire Brigade
  • Hamburg Fire Brigade
  • Flood Competence Center Cologne
  • Saxony-Anhalt State Office for Flood Protection and Water Management (LHW)
  • Technical Relief Organization, SEEBA, local associations Sinzig, Euskirchen, Achim and others
  • West Palatinate Clinic Kaiserslautern
  • and others