The recognition gap: land governance and the pre-hazard production of disaster risk in South Africa

Abstract

Disaster risk can be produced through governance processes that operate before hazards occur. The role of land tenure recognition in them remains undertheorised. This study examines how uneven institutional translation of tenure recognition may shape pre-hazard disaster risk in legally plural settings. A qualitative policy instrument analysis compares two South African National Housing Code programmes using institutional mapping, thematic coding, and abductive reasoning. Both programmes reveal conditional recognition, in which occupation gains institutional standing without equivalent integration across planning, infrastructure, and disaster risk governance. The Recognition Gap Governance and Disaster Risk Framework identifies cross-institutional translation, diffused spatial risk accountability, and institutional bricolage as interrelated governance dynamics through which exposure may become embedded. This shifts analytical attention from post-hazard response to the institutional processes that produce vulnerability and exposure before hazards materialise. Disaster risk reduction should engage earlier and more coherently with the governance of land use recognition and settlement development.