Dr. Devin Stein, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Department of Management at the Culverhouse College of Business, The University of Alabama, presented his research titled “Distributed Knowledge and the Creation of Public Value: Community-Based Organizing and Wildfire Management in Northern California.”

This episode examines how community self-organization and local knowledge reduce wildfire damage, drawing on Dr. Devin Stein’s research in Northern California. He introduces “idle local knowledge” - critical, but scattered, insights residents hold about risks, terrain, access routes, and water sources that often remain unused unless actively collected. By studying 20 years of data, he finds that self-organizing communities experience about 5% fewer annual property losses from wildfires, rising to 7–10% when they collaborate deeply with state and federal agencies. The conversation critiques one-size-fits-all “best practices,” showing that prevention must be tailored to contexts such as dense forests, high desert, or wildland–urban interfaces.

It highlights both formal organizations and informal neighbor networks, stressing flexible, trust-based collaboration rather than rigid contracts. The episode concludes that this model of activating local knowledge applies far beyond wildfire management, including floods, hurricanes, public health crises, and homelessness.

This podcast is brought to you by Global Management Consultancy. For more information, please visit www.globalmanagementconsultancy.com.

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