The role of smartphone apps in the "culture of preparedness"

The quantitative results also point at groups of citizens, who are not active or frequent social media users but may still be interested in using mobile phone apps. This was, again, confirmed by the qualitative data which revealed that in particularly the older participants showed a strong positive response towards using and testing a “disaster app”, contradicting thus the cultural stereotype of older people being generally more technology-averse. Generally, such apps were not only ascribed the possible function of technology-based sociality amongst citizens, but they were also imagined as contributing to the development of a specific “culture of preparedness”, based on the common interest in new technology use.

Cultural Factors: Norms/values, Customs/traditions/rituals, Worldviews, Open-mindedness, Communication

Hazards: Natural hazards, Man-made non-intentional hazards or emergency situations, Man-made intentional hazards

Disaster Phases: Prevention, Preparedness, Response, Recovery, All disaster phases

Types of Actors Concerned: National civil protection body, Local authorities, Media, Government