Piers Blaikie

Ian Davis

Ben Wisner

Terry Cannon

Examines the significance of the human factor which is as much of a cause of disasters as the natural environment. Practical and policy conclusions are drawn with a view to disaster reduction and the promotion of safer environments.

Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters

At Risk

At Risk reasserts the significance of the human factor in disasters. Establishing that the social, political and economic environment is as much a cause of disasters as the natural environment, the book argues that disaster mitigation is rooted in the potential humans have to understand their vulnerability and to take common action. Famines and drought, biological hazards, floods, coastal storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides: At Risk draws practical and policy conclusions with a view to disaster reduction and the promotion of a safer environment.

Alan Jenkins

Deng Xiaoping's rule has seen fundamental economic change in China. This book considers the impact of these years on China's physical environment, as well as its people, industry, agriculture and trade. It also assesses the contribution of a decade of Chinese politics towards geopolitics. The book provides an introduction to Communist China, setting its spatial and environmental themes in the historical, political and economic framework so crucial to a proper understanding of this country and the fifth of the world's population it contains. It is particularly suited to courses on China, its geography and development strategy. After the bloody events of Tiananmen Square in June 1989 China's geopolitics will continue to hold the world's attention. With this in view the book also provides guides to further reading.

The Impact of Deng Xiaoping's Decade

The Geography of Contemporary China

Greg Bankoff

Fred Krüger

Benedikt Orlowski

E. Lisa F. Schipper

Why did the people of the Zambesi Delta affected by severe flooding return early to their homes or even choose to not evacuate? How is the forced resettlement of small-scale farmers living along the foothills of an active volcano on the Philippines impacting on their day-to-day livelihood routines? Making sense of such questions and observations is only possible by understanding how the decision-making of societies at risk is embedded in culture, and how intervention measures acknowledge, or neglect, cultural settings. The social construction of risk is being given increasing priority in understand how people experience and prioritize hazards in their own lives and how vulnerability can be reduced, and resilience increased, at a local level. Culture and Disasters adopts an interdisciplinary approach to explore this cultural dimension of disaster, with contributions from leading international experts within the field. Section I provides discussion of theoretical considerations and practical research to better understand the important of culture in hazards and disasters. Culture can be interpreted widely with many different perspectives; this enables us to critically consider the cultural boundedness of research itself, as well as the complexities of incorporating various interpretations into DRR. If culture is omitted, related issues of adaptation, coping, intervention, knowledge and power relations cannot be fully grasped. Section II explores what aspects of culture shape resilience? How have people operationalized culture in every day life to establish DRR practice? What constitutes a resilient culture and what role does culture play in a society’s decision making? It is natural for people to seek refuge in tried and trust methods of disaster mitigation, however, culture and belief systems are constantly evolving. How these coping strategies can be introduced into DRR therefore poses a challenging question. Finally, Section III examines the effectiveness of key scientific frameworks for understanding the role of culture in disaster risk reduction and management. DRR includes a range of norms and breaking these through an understanding of cultural will challenge established theoretical and empirical frameworks.

Understanding Cultural Framings in Disaster Risk Reduction

Cultures and Disasters

The Story of the Black Panther Party

All Power to the People

The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.

Terry Cannon

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