From geotechnics to participatory management: a critical analysis of university extension projects with a focus on disaster risk reduction

Abstract The university extension is the conductive space-time for the direct articulation between scientific knowledge and society, linking innovation and social commitment of the University. Focusing on the urgent theme of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), this paper analyzed and systematized contents and methods used in four extension projects developed by the Risk Management Laboratory of the Federal University of ABC (LabGRis-UFABC) between 2012 and 2021. There was a process of evolution in the theoretical-methodological approach on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and the insertion of participatory learning processes, which corroborate the evolutionary line of four international milestones in DRR: Yokohama (1994), Hyogo (2005), Sendai (2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015). The results point to the role of the University in criticizing the failure of traditional methodologies, expressed in the tragic persistence of the disasters that we are witnessing, as well as the role of local stakeholders through processes of co-production of knowledge and sharing of risk decision-making, which are enhanced by university extension, as the way forward for safe, resilient and socially just communities.